iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The week, from February 7 to 14 marks World Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) Awareness week. In recognition of this week, HD Medical Inc, a Silicon Valley-based innovator announced that it has screened over 50,000 children for CHDs using HD Steth™ across India.
HD Steth is an intelligent stethoscope, developed by HD Medical Inc with three integrated ECG electrodes, which delivers accurate and instant cardiac insights.
These screenings were conducted at various locations in India, and the children diagnosed with CHD were provided life-saving treatments and surgeries by the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals in India.
CHDs affect a large number of newborns and account for a high proportion of infant mortality worldwide. In fact, 1 out of 100 babies are born with CHD worldwide and nearly 40,000 infants in the US are born each year with CHDs.
In India, pediatric cardiac care is still in its infancy, and there is not a lot of data on CHD prevalence at birth or on proportional mortality from CHD. The resources are not only limited but also are at times improperly utilized.
According to latest stats, each year approximately 300,000 children are born with CHD and approximately 25% die before their first birthday. The absence of early screening and sophisticated pediatric care is causing over 250 deaths among children every day in India.
The World CHD Awareness week is specifically set to change this by attracting more support and investment towards this cause. Innovations like HD Steth is a huge step in this direction to diagnose the condition as early as possible.
HD Medical’s FDA-cleared HD Steth addresses this problem, providing a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution for non-specialists and primary healthcare workers. HD Steth was tested and validated through a clinical study involving 1,200 children, with 91 percent sensitivity and 99 percent specificity for detecting heart murmurs caused by CHDs compared to Ultrasound Echocardiograms as a gold standard at the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital at Raipur, Chhattisgarh State in Central India.
Based on this study, HD Steth was adopted in a large CHD screening program at their group hospitals and medical screening programs at multiple locations in India as follows:
Sai Sanjeevani Hospital at Palwal, Haryana: 12,974
Sai Sanjeevani Hospital at Kharghar, Maharashtra: 8,020
Sai Sanjeevani Hospital at Raipur, Chhattisgarh: 2,000
Sai Sanjeevani – Niraamaya Bastar initiative: 1,000
Sai Sarla Memorial Hospital, Chickaballapur, Karnataka: 19,650
Sai Arogya Vahini Trust Mobile Medical Clinics, Kolkata, West Bengal: 8,450
Total number of Children Screened: 52,094
Total number of Children Screened and confirmed with CHDs: 90+
Total number of Children Saved with Heart Surgeries: 36+
The Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani hospitals in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Haryana are India’s largest providers of totally free pediatric heart procedures, performing nearly 14,000 surgeries and catheter interventions since 2012.
“The centers stand committed to the investment in child health initiatives for a healthier nation in the future by offering quality healthcare provided totally free of cost,” said Mr. C Sreenivas, Chairman of Sai Sanjeevani hospitals.
He added, “The HD Steth device from HD Medical is very helpful for screening children with CHD at an early stage so that a timely surgical intervention can be possible to save their lives. HD Steth makes it possible for healthcare workers to screen children for CHD and refer them for follow up care at our hospitals.”
“We started a program to screen over 100,000 children in Chickaballapur District in Karnataka State during October 2020 and so far have screened close to 20,000 children despite COVID-19,” said Dr. Satish Babu, a leading Endocrinologist trained at Cambridge University Hospital, King’s College Hospital and Cardiff University Hospital in UK and currently practicing at Sri Sathya Sai Sarla Memorial Hospital, Muddenahalli near Bengaluru, Karnataka.
“We have also expanded the HD Steth screening program to countries such as Fiji, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Malaysia, and the U.S.,” said Arvind Thiagarajan, Founder and CEO of HD Medical. “These screenings will target 500,000 children within a year, demonstrating HD Medical’s commitment to the cause of saving children through early CHD screening with better technology.”
