Finally, what took years to be completed can now be done in as short as six months. Thanks to Stanford physicians efforts to use technological innovations in providing Guatemala less fortunate children a hand in improving their health condition.

Stanford medical team recently released the very first "nutrition surveillance" application. This application was created by Paul Wise, a Stanford pediatrician together with Alejandro Chavez, his assistant and the rest of the team with the goal of reducing the mortality rate in the poorest and most remote regions across the globe.

They launched the app by installing it on six tablets and releasing them to locals of San Lucas Toliman. These locals will be the ones doing the monitoring by simply keying in the necessary data. The six tablets will be for the monitoring of the 1,500 children of the said locality.

The team aims to disseminate the apps to every group and organization providing assistance to poor cities in need of special health attention, Stanford News reported.

In 2005, one in every 20 children was recorded in Guatemala to die under the age of five UNICEF reported.

Alarmed by the increasing number of children below five years olds mortality rate, Paul Wise together with Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies faculty members created the Children in Crisis Initiative.

The program reaches out to rural communities not only bringing medical assistance but equipping locals as well. They strongly believe that the best way to help them is to make them part of the solution.

They involved locals by training them on the steps that need to be taken in order for them to be able to run the projects with the promoters managing the daily activities.

"Nutrition Surveillance" application will make the training for the locals shorter from three years to less than six months. This is because the application will perform the majority of the task.

"Nutrition Surveillance" proves the team's optimism in spite of Guatemala cities becoming a challenge for as they tried to equip the residents with proper knowledge in providing their children with proper nutrition, comes the reality that not all of them are able to afford the amount to provide their families with enough healthy foods.

Topics Stanford University, Children, Health