Digital Polyclinic

Summary: Spearheaded by Anna, Digital Polyclinic is the rural healthcare education arm of DSH. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit a village where adult reproductive health training was underway; for me, DPC further proves the potential of DSH.

For a small, young (4-year-old) organization, Digital StudyHall has a surprising number of “franchises” and endeavors. To some extent, there are operations in Bangalore, Pune, Calcutta, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and more. People often ask DSH for help replicating our model in their area, and we’re more than willing to “consult” (i.e., share our advice and experiences with) them.

Furthermore, we have taken the basic DSH model and expanded it to rural healthcare education through Digital Polyclinic (DPC). Anna has spearheaded this effort, shooting videos of trainings conducted by knowledgeable doctors in Lucknow and running mediated sessions in villages. The hitch, of course, is making the content relevant to women in villages using doctors who treat patients in well-resourced urban settings. (DSH faces a similar issue.)

DPC currently runs trainings on women’s reproductive health. These trainings last 12 days, approximately 2 hours each day. DPC is moving toward developing another curriculum to address key issues in villages, such as adolescent reproductive health, or general rural healthcare (e.g., how to deal with snake bites).

Elizabeth and I went with Anna on a village visit today (to the village where Pratyush grew up and where he has founded the Educational Academy). Not only was it was great seeing the fruit of Anna and Roshan’s hard work, but it was also fun to play with the babies.

I noticed that although the skills required of the DPC mediator is fundamentally different from those required of DSH teachers, the general DSH model remains in tact. At a personal level, this is incredibly powerful and validating.