KL Desk
Srinagar
The Department of Environment Ecology and Remote Sensing has been awarded national e-governance award for 2012-13 in the category “innovative use of technology in e-governance” for its project “measuring physical accessibility to healthcare network and population coverage modelling in J&K state using geo-informatics.”
The objective of the project was to provide an insight into the existing healthcare network and its catchment areas based on travel time and population coverage capacity of the various types of health institutions in state besides rationally identifying locations for setting up new healthcare facilities in future so that patients could reach these within a predetermined travel time irrespective of their location.
The idea was conceived when Chief Minister visited the geo-informatics laboratory of the department and he identified 4-5 projects for use of remote sensing technology and studying the impact on the development processes and this was one such project.
“This is for the first time that the technology has been put to use for decision making in the context of Health care accessibility among masses using a software package by the name ACCESSMOD-3 developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and suitably modifying it in the context of the state,” read the official statement.
Humayun Rashid was the Principal Investigator for the project, funded by the department of health and medical education department, government of J&K.
