“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable”. – William Pollard
The Covid Pandemic has dented the spirit of the world leaving it in a state of weltschmerz. In the unprecedented crisis, all the countries are coming up with their ideas and innovations to collaborate among themselves and combat the deadly pandemic. Let’s look at some of the ways by which low and middle income countries are working together towards effective remediation of this Pandemic.
The effective usage of mobile phone communication has resulted in improved data collection, reporting and better communication between healthcare staff, frontline workers, clinicians to take proactive steps in controlling the widespread transmission of covid against low and middle income countries. Use of ticketing apps for harnessing passenger data in public transport in Kenya has helped in contact tracing and forecasting future clusters. This has also helped in sending a deterrent to passengers and limiting the number of commuters to prevent community spread. These approaches are not only simple but also sensitive to social and cultural ethos of the people and have been successful despite resource crunch.
The first line of defence consists of people who are involved in detection, prevention and controlling the infection. Vietnam has come up with an innovative idea of making use of robots for cleaning the hospitals and formation of special groups for distribution for food and help items to the vulnerable sections of the society. These measures have not only controlled the infection at large but also helped in reducing the impact of lockdown and restrictions. The routine health monitoring systems developed in South Africa are being reinvented to monitor pandemic response and track vaccination distribution in different countries.
Re-engineering existing resources in the intensive care unit of Saudi Arabia has helped in workforce optimization and reducing workflows resulting in better efficiency and turn around time. Tasks which require specific skill sets have been earmarked and resources deployed based on current demand. Specialists have been identified to carry out the tasks cut out for them which helps in unlocking human potential. Despite an increase in patient frequency clinicians could provide adequate care and respond to their medical requirements seamlessly thanks to the proactive steps taken towards restructuring.
User centric approach is giving way to driven methodologies resulting in better business outcomes and value generation. Any crisis presents itself with hidden opportunities that need to be unearthed for deriving the benefits for society and building a competitive edge. The need for personal protective equipment was identified by a network of enterprises in Mumbai who collaborated with others in the market and delivered more than one million safety masks within a short span of time to meet the demands of healthcare providers and end users. This is a good example of bottom of the pyramid innovation through creation of prototype and service delivery.
New age techniques like data modelling have played a significant role in prognosis of the pandemic and developing strategies for accelerating the responses for control and resilience. Countries like Rwanda which is strapped with resource constraints have come up with new data driven pool testing methods which has helped in reduction of the number of tests required to narrow down on the infection count. Analytics and data comparison have also been effective in India for control of spread in large states with the help of low-cost paper based tests carried out in mobile labs.
Conclusion
We at Newlineinfo Corp are committed to our fight against Covid and support the geographies in which we operate through social inclusivity and innovative management practices.
