A Week in Kasurdi – Lessons in Health and Humanity (SIMPLe Study)

As a medical cadet at Armed Forces Medical College, I've often sat through lectures and pondered over data, disease models, and national health statistics. But nothing prepared me for the raw reality of disease until I stepped into the sun-drenched fields of Kasurdi, a small village in Western Maharashtra, as part of Project SIMPLe—Screening Intervention for Myeloma and Prevention of Lifestyle Diseases.

Our mission? To assess the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and even lesser-known conditions like MGUS among villagers aged 45 and above.

Over 7 days and 12,000+ man-hours, we screened 856 villagers, went door-to-door across bastis, interviewed elders who hadn’t seen a doctor in years, measured blood pressures under banyan trees, and maintained cold chains for blood samples using sheer ingenuity. We had our own unique IDs for every villager. We used KOBO Toolbox for digital data collection and conducted lab tests I’d previously only read about—like serum protein electrophoresis to identify cases of MGUS.

What moved me most, however, was the resilience of these people and how small interventions sparked massive hope. We introduced awareness through role plays, trained ASHA workers, proposed telemedicine follow-ups, and even created ABHA-linked health cards for long-term tracking.

As we wrapped up the camp, I didn’t just leave Kasurdi with data—I left with purpose. For the first time, I saw how medicine isn't just about treating symptoms—it's about reaching the unreached, listening to unheard voices, and changing lives with compassion and science.