[VoxSpace Life] Nat Geo’s Chasing Genius Award : Asha Gummadi Wins For ‘Therex’ Medical App

The Nat Geo Challenge

The world would have been less of a place if few of the population did not bring out their ideas to fruition. An idea is what it takes to make a difference. With this thought, the National Geographic introduced the challenge “Chasing Genius: Unlimited Innovation”.

The notion of “Chasing Genius Challenge” is to create a path, a digital platform for the entire population to present different ideas individually, which would make a difference in the world. Of the submitted ideas, ideas would be selected based on the votes of people and would be awarded $25,000, with which the ideas can be made a working reality.

In the words of National Geographic “At National Geographic, we believe transformational ideas can come from anywhere, from anyone. That’s why we created CHASING GENIUS, a digital community designed to inspire, ignite, and enable the genius inside each of us. Explore your curiosities, share your stories, and turn your ideas into catalysts for change in the world.”

Asha Gummadi And Her Idea

Image result for dr asha gummadi

Out of many such ideas and among 10 finalistsone idea that stood out as a winner was by Asha Gummadi. Her idea was Empowering Tele Rehabilitation with Digital Connectivity”

Asha, who currently resides in Philadelphia U.S.A, is an Indian origin doctor, a neurologic physical therapist, from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

Asha’s idea was to design a web/mobile based application that connects the people of various countries to get online rehabilitation and to connect physiotherapists around the world. The main winning point of this web portal is that the people of any country can get instructions in their native language.

Asha’s web portal- Therex Portal is a portal based on this idea. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation exercises are provided through videos to a number of people around the world. Therex portal boasts of highly qualified experts and therapists, and visibly clear and convenient videos with many power-ups, which makes the videos very beneficial. Of course, the central point of the portal is availability and customization of the videos in various languages of the world. Patients can read, listen, comprehend and remember in various native languages. Other things that it boasts of are its friendly user interface, availability on various digital platforms and its affordability.

What Led Asha To Think Of This Idea?

Asha shares her experience of how she observed her grandparents struggle to get proper physiotherapy and rehabilitation facilities because of the absence of any physiotherapy health centre in their village. Another instance was when her mother was prescribed vestibular therapy by a doctor, but could not find a proficient therapist who could treat it continuously. Continuity in therapy was halted when she was discharged, she could not help her mother as her mother spoke Telugu and no physiotherapy website/application with Telugu as the primary language was available. She also witnessed similar situations in various rural areas of the country and world, where people travel long distances to access proper medical care and cannot continue them after being discharged from therapy centres.

She also observed that there were no web portals and applications that were customizable to the patients of different parts of the world, which would provide instructions in their native languages for a better understanding of the rehabilitation process.

This experience of her led to the creation of Therex Portal. Many poor people of backward countries are using this portal and gaining low of cost physiotherapist rehabilitation. Therex Portal boosts patient care with the aptitude to adapt to a patient’s specific physical ability and understanding level.

About Therex Portal

Therex Portal, a digital rehabilitation centre, was created to keep in check the physiotherapy sessions that are advised by native doctors and also as complementary to the physical sessions. It checks the continuity of physiotherapy sessions, which patients tend to forget, after being discharged from the hospital leading to incomplete outcomes. They can check exercises advised by the doctor and mark them for future self-application.

Patients from countries, where English is not the first language, can access this portal and understand the exercises which are interpreted in their native languages, both in listening and reading.

This portal also acts as a review material for the patients to understand the correct positions, postures, and results of the exercise.

Therex Portal is equipped with custom-made 3D videos which helps the patients to view the exercises from multiple angles and lets them get a clear understanding of the rehabilitation exercises.

Pros Of The Therex Portal

1. Rehabilitation through telecommunication

2. Customizable language facility

3. Friendly user interface

4. Affordable service

5. Connecting the doctors to the patient

6. Continuity in the process of rehabilitation

Cons Of The Therex portal

The inability to reach places with no internet service.

Conclusion

This idea of Asha Gummadi got an award from the prestigious National Geographic Organisation, which definitely speaks a lot about itself. With correct support from the authorities of the countries, this application can be made available even in the remotest of places. The potential of Therex portal is very high and its future growth is to look out for.

Such genius ideas are the need of the present time.  Ideas which can slowly but surely make a difference for a better world are required. Every person, especially we Indians, need to come out and express our ideas, even if it looks unapproachable at first, but once communicated like-minded people will join to bring it to fruition.

As Steve Jobs rightly said, “You can have the greatest idea in the world but if you can’t communicate your ideas, it doesn’t matter.”

Congratulations, Asha!