Panaji: The Government of Goa in collaboration with Wipro GE Healthcare has implemented ‘Smart kiosks’ for random population-based screening of Covid-19. This initiative will help address the increasing need for more community testing through a swift, robust and seamless sample collection process. Wipro GE Healthcare, through its CSR efforts, has designed and installed 12 ‘Smart Kiosks’ across the state. The Kiosk have been placed and started operations at the following locations: Verna Industrial Estate, Mapusa Industrial Estate, Dambolim airport, Mormugao Port Trust and at the border locations in Dodamarg, Keri, and Patradevi. The ‘Smart kiosk’ was developed by design engineers at e-Cube, a one-of-its-kind design studio at Wipro GE’s innovation centre in Bengaluru.
“We are introducing state-of-art ‘Smart Kiosks’ to ensure the safety of both healthcare staff and citizens of Goa when sample collection is taking place. These Kiosks will go a long way in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the state of Goa.”, says *Shri Vishwajit Rane, Honourable Health Minister of Goa*. “Effective partnership between Government and Industry is critical when dealing with challenges like the one we face today. I am thankful to Wipro GE Healthcare, who through their CSR efforts have come forward to support this initiative by designing an innovative kiosk and having it implemented across 12 locations in Goa.”
“Doctors and Healthcare workers getting infected with Covid-19 when passionately carrying out their duties is a disturbing and unfortunate fallout of the treatment process,” said Nalinikanth Gollagunta, Managing Director, Wipro GE Healthcare. “Our design team at Bangalore has created this ‘Smart Kiosk’ which eliminates any contact between a suspected Covid-19 patient and the healthcare worker when collecting samples, thus significantly reducing their chances of getting infected.
Our CSR is focused around efforts that positively improve the lives of people and communities we serve. We are delighted to partner with the Government of Goa to implement this solution and will be making this design freely available to anyone who wishes to make use of it.”
*About the Smart Walk-in Sample Collection Kiosk*
The ‘Smart Kiosk’ consists of two enclosures, one for citizens and one for healthcare staff which are separated by a see-through, airtight partition. Both enclosures have separate entries, lighting and ventilation arrangements, and have a mic and speaker for communication between the healthcare worker and the citizen. The partition wall houses a pair of replaceable gloves and a sanitizing gel dispenser to enable safe sample collection.
An attendant (wearing a PPE) will first collect basic information about people coming for tests: vitals (weight, age, any existing health condition), persons travel history, if they have come in contact with any known Covid-19 patients, and check their temperature using an IR temperature gun.
This information is stored in an app that is being used by the Government of Goa. Post that citizens will be provided with a kit (swab) to collect samples for testing. They then move to the sample collection enclosure where the Healthcare worker (who is on the other enclosure) collects the sample, hands back the swab to the person who puts it in a vial, drops it in an ice box and walks away. The Kiosk is disinfected after every sample collection.
