Anantha Annaswamy was the next speaker. He talked about a project that he was associated with in his Medtronic days, Shruti. (https://www.medtronic.com/in-en/about/shruti.html) The aim was to reach out to people staying in slums, who often suffer from ear problems, and don’t realise it. A 3 year old, who continues to have a prolonged cold can end up with hearing losses. This happens as the infection spreads from the nose to the eustachian tube and finally to the eardrum. If the infection persists, the eardrum can perforate. 

The major challenge for reaching out to this under-served segment of society is the low density of doctors. There are less than 10 lakh doctors in India. And many many fewer who have ENT specialisation. So getting access to doctors, even if they are not charging you anything, is a big challenge.

Ananth, during his time at Medtronic, developed a mobile phone based device, which has a specialised app. This was done with the help of Stanford Biodevices. The phone that they have standardized on – is a Sony Android phone. In order to reduce the chances of infection, the probe is changed after every inspection. The initial versions of the Pro cost more than 12 rupees, now it is down to 1 Rupee.

This allows a layman, or laywoman, to peer into the ear and take a snapshot. One very interesting thing that Ananth had done was to get the local Maharashtra Shruti team on stage. They did a demo of an actual inspection. And we were all amazed to note that the volunteer who came on stage was using earbuds to clean his ear. The message that went across was that traditional remedies like putting in oil, earbuds, can end up doing more harm to the eardrum then benefit to the ear cavity. As far as wax is concerned, some amount of wax is required in the ear. But an excess of wax can create a problem. 

There are two sites in Pune where Shruti’s work is going on. One is in Pimpri and the other is in Wanowrie. Shruti wants to reach out to people who can direct some CSR funds into this area. And they are also looking at general help in networking to be able to reach out to new areas. When Ananth left Medtronic 3 years ago, there were a total of 8 sites in the country. Today Maharashtra alone has 13 sites. The project has really scaled up well.