City firm developed vital medical device for US soldiers

AHMEDABAD: When the US forces fought ''Operation Enduring Freedom'' on Afghan soil to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, in addition to their weapons, they also carried a new hand-held device.
The palm computer-based device helped the US Army doctors working on field in Afghanistan to access all medical data of soldiers in a jiffy.
Sitting in Afghanistan, they accessed all information relating to illnesses suffered by the soldiers, medicines administered, lab test reports and others.They also communicated with the mainframe computer at base camps, Army hospitals and headquarters for consultation. All at a mere touch of a button from thousands of miles away!
Making this possible was an Ahmedabad-based software development firm, VMF Soft Tech, which developed this hi-tech gizmo ''Mobile MedData MC4'' for the Medical Communication for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) group of the US Army.
The man behind this development, Udayan Mandavia, says "It was the first patient information manager written for palm and pocket PC." Mandavia had first developed a similar mobile medical communications system in 1997. Aiding him in this development is his team Saleem Desai, Kedar Mehta, Smitesh Shah and Paul Lukens.
Mandavia''s US-firm Medical Communication Systems then developed this device for the US Army, meeting all its rigorous requirements, and was successfully tested during the Afghan war for field testing.
"Dubbed as the Army''s first responder, it allows doctors on-field to access all medical information relating to soldiers, reference information and also lets them consult with base camps and Army hospitals far away", he says.
And it revolutionised the US Army''s 225-year-old paper-based medical record system! Till now, combat medics used to identify soldiers through their ''dog tags'' and had to carry bulky paperwork for accessing soldiers'' data.
After adaptation, the gadget will be used more extensively by the US Army. Doctors treating wounded or ill soldiers in the battlefield will be a relieved lot, as they will be able to access all that they need to know, at the mere touch of a button.
"Its simplified interface allows physicians to create and maintain electronic charts on their patients, add or modify information on those charts through their hand-held computer. They can even send updated records back to the server", says Robert Torche, a major in the US Army who had recently visited the city in connection with the software development.
Through use of the latest technology, data storage is rugged, large, fast, and more efficient, at minimal power consumption. With modem or wireless communications tightly integrated, combat medics can stay connected to aid stations or other facilities.
Mandavia says that initially the product was deployed at the Army''s Initial Brigade Combat Team at Fort Lewis. One hundred thirty-five Mobile MedData devices were issued to a variety of medical personnel participating in Army Transformation.