Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Breast Cancer Identifying & Treating Project; Amader Gram an ICT4D initiative of Bangladesh

last updated Apr 5, 2013

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Friendship Education Society (BFES)/ Amader Gram
Implementation Partner(s): 
Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Khulna Medical College Hospital, Click Diagonostic
Legal Status: 
Public-private partnership
Year Launched: 
2006
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
All income levels

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
International Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Technology

Technology Used: 
Phones, Computer
Technology Partner(s): 
Click Diagonostic

Scale

Personnel Employed: 
<10
Number of Clients Served: 
665
Number of Facilities Operated/Networked: 
one
Other Measures of Scale: 
Number of women examined, number of women referred, number of women treated
Scope: 
The health workers of Amader Gram’s Breast Cancer Screening program use Click Diagnostics’ mobile phone-based software to collect health data from 45,000 households to screen out breast cancer patients and to monitor the patient management and information analysis system electronically. The service has tremendous potential to become a model for screening of a culturally sensitive and tabooed condition such as breast cancer for conservative societies like Bangladesh.
Summary: 

In mid 2006 BFES/Amader Gram partnered with the International Breast Cancer Research Foundation (www.ibcrf.org) to become one of 9 countries participating in a clinical trial titled “Phase III randomized study of luteal phase vs. follicular phase surgical oophorectomy and tamoxifen in premenopausal women with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.” Amader Gram provides the oversight and administration of this trial at partnering Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Khulna Medical College Hospital.

Program goals/rationale: 

The goal of the project is to develop participatory monitoring and learning system at the village level by using Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools and to facilitate joint tracking progress by the communities and other grassroots level stakeholders.

Key program components: 

The breast problem clinic is held three days per week in a private examination room connected to the Amader Gram offices. A trained female doctor and medical assistant attend each clinic, examining and keeping records of each woman who comes to the clinic. Women are provided advice and supportive care; those with more serious issues are referred to an affiliated doctor at Khulna Medical College. Regular advertising of the clinic is conducted and the local hospital and family planning clinic refer patients with breast problems to our clinic. Over 500 women have been examined, with 18 receiving treatment through the clinical trial as of October 2007.

The relationship of the clinic to the Amader Gram IT center has been a wonderful complement. Trained professionals in database development and management have created a user-friendly client database from which patients can be tracked from visit to visit. This activity is a real-world example for IT center participants of how computer skills can be utilized for the improvement of health, providing an invaluable service for the clinicians and important data on breast problems in Bangladesh.

Program history: 

Many women in Bangladesh either never seek treatment, or arrive at hospitals with late-stage cancer, which is often untreatable. Numerous social, economic, health-system related and political issues factor into these circumstances, complicating an already challenging situation.Recognizing that these challenges needed to be addressed before the clinical trial could be successful, IBCRF asked BFES/Amader Gram to help develop a unique solution. As a pioneer for rural ICT efforts, BFES/Amader Gram is an established and respected organization in the communities in which it works. In Bagerhat, BFES/Amader Gram has had a computer learning center in place for a number of years, training hundreds of young men and women on the use and application of computers. This well known and comfortable place was to be the site for the first free walk-in breast problem clinic.

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