For families in remote villages across northeastern India, seeing a doctor often means long journeys over difficult terrain, lost daily wages, and sometimes, lifesaving treatment that comes too late. In several districts of the state of Assam, geographical barriers and limited infrastructure have kept quality healthcare out of reach for communities that need it most.

In partnership with Piramal Swasthya, one of many nonprofit partners that helped Cisco positively impact 50 million lives in India, we continue to work to change that. Through Project Niramay, we are leveraging technology to bring digital health infrastructure to Baksa, Barpeta, and Darrang, three of Assam's most underserved districts - and what these districts are learning about using technology to connect patients to specialists and communities to care has the potential to fundamentally reshape how India delivers healthcare to its most vulnerable populations.

 

Building digital bridges to specialized care

Through Project Niramay, health workers use digital tools to bridge the gap between rural patients and specialized medical care.

Bridging that geographic divide to increase access to specialized medical care to rural communities required both physical infrastructure and the software to make it work. Project Niramay - which translates to "healthy" or "free from illness" in Sanskrit - is doing this by equipping health facilities across the three districts with connectivity solutions, video conferencing technology, and cybersecurity infrastructure. Beyond infrastructure, the project supports government healthcare workers, from frontline staff to nurses and medical officers, with the training needed to integrate these digital tools into patient care.

But hardware alone doesn't transform healthcare delivery. Piramal Swasthya built the initiative on its Accessible Medical Records via Integrated Technologies (AMRIT) platform, a Digital Public Good that complies with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission standards and aligns with the Government of India's goals to digitize and strengthen healthcare delivery nationwide. The platform manages patient data, coordinates telemedicine consultations, and integrates information from diagnostic devices into a unified system.

Together, the connectivity infrastructure and AMRIT platform enable a hub-and-spoke model through which local health centers serve as access points where patients can receive care close to home and connect through telemedicine to doctors at hub hospitals when necessary. This enables a patient in a rural village to consult with specialists like cardiologists or obstetricians without traveling hours to the nearest city. Advanced diagnostic tools like HealthCube for point-of-care testing, Fetosense for pregnancy monitoring, and Swymed's telemedicine technology facilitates real-time remote consultations and makes them more effective. Furthermore, when patients visit different facilities, their medical history travels with them, allowing providers to make better-informed decisions and administrators to allocate resources more effectively.

Across the 24 Health & Wellness Centers, three primary health care centers, and three first referral units equipped through the program, the impact has been substantial. Between 2021 and 2023, Project Niramay created over 110,000 digital health records, identified more than 16,500 cases of chronic diseases for early intervention, and provided care for over 2,600 expectant mothers who would have otherwise faced risky journeys to distant facilities.

Dr. Abdul Jalil, a senior district health officer in Darrang, points to real efficiency gains. "The system automatically prioritizes patients based on their health data, so our Health & Wellness Centers can focus on those who need care most urgently."

 

Writing the next chapter of rural healthcare delivery

With technology at their fingertips, doctors at Project Niramay clinics provide accurate, timely care to those who need it most.

Looking ahead, Piramal Swasthya envisions scaling this approach across other underserved regions. "We want to co-create a scalable model that strengthens public health systems, empowers frontline workers, and ensures equitable access to quality healthcare in underserved regions," says Aditya Natraj, CEO Piramal Foundation. "This collaboration brings community-driven solutions and diverse resources; technology enables data-driven impact and scale. Together, they bridge gaps in rural healthcare access more effectively."

What's been proven in these three districts can inform how other regions tackle similar challenges. For families in rural Assam, the impact is immediate: less time traveling, faster diagnoses, and care that reaches them where they are. For India's healthcare system, Project Niramay offers proof that digital infrastructure, deployed thoughtfully, can help bridge the gap between where people live and the care they need. As these tools and approaches scale, they offer the promise of a more equitable healthcare future for all within reach.