TRACHEOTALK SWARSANWAD APP DEVELOPED
Team L&M
Dr Reema Goswami, Professor and HOD, ENT at Bundelkhand Medical College, Sagar and Dr Madhu Sharma, a postgraduate student in the same Department have developed a new app that helps tracheostomized patients communicate.
Patients with Head & Neck cancers present with difficulty is swallowing, change in voice & respiratory difficulty which may be due to airway obstruction as well as involvement of nerves.
“This is one of the most common indication for Tracheostomy in the casualty we come across due to upper airway obstruction. Though as ENT surgeons we are satisfied saving the life of the patient , we hardly realize the pschological impact it has on the patient and his attendants realizing he cant speak, though preoperative consent is taken . Though a pen and paper can be given or a mobile to type for the patient to communicate but for a patient in pain , or an uneducated patient or patient from rural area this becomes a tedious task .Indirectly this affects his postoperative care by the nursing staff or doctors in duty,” says Dr Goswami.
“Thus we decided to create an app which is easy to use by all patients Tracheostomy acts as an alternative pathway for breathing in which a is stoma or hole is made in the trachea and patient can breathe directly through it bypassing the upper obstruction Tracheostomy is also done for patients on Ventilators in the ICU or patients with respiratory paralysis. This app will be installed in the patients mobile before the operation to sensitize the patient how to use it,” she adds
