Telemedicine in India

TELEMEDICINE IN INDIA

Telemedicine in India

Telemedicine is a method, by which patients can be examined, investigated, monitored and treated, with the patients and doctor located in different places. Time magazine coined the phrase as ‘healing by wire’.

The availability of telemedicine is dependent to a large degree on telecommunications, and on high bandwidth; the field is concerned with advanced telecom equipment and standards, methods of increasing effective bandwidth and network performance, costs of installation and operation, security, confidentiality and reliability, and with government legislation aimed at furthering progress in these areas.

Thanks to the explosion in communications technology truly making the world a global village, it has now become possible to diagnose a medical problem, supervise a surgical procedure or give a doctor or a paramedical health worker in a rural area valuable health information from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.

Andhra Pradesh government has embarked on a huge broad band project with private consortium. It plans to cover all the villages in Andhra Pradesh within three years. Each village is proposed to be covered with 100 MB and each mandal with 1 GB connection. How ever though they will use fibre to connect most of the mandal (small block) they need WIFI and other technologies to connect to the final village.

The major technologies to be employed are Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) using CODECS of Tadiran, Israel, TDMA Satcom of VIASAT, USA with Voice Over IP products of ARELNET, Israel. BEL will integrate above technologies into a single platform and provide end to end solution for APNET.

Apollo telemedicine	Apollo group	A 50 bed hospital in Aragonda village (population of 15,000) of Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh is connected to the Apollo group main hospitals in Chennai and Hyderabad through a satellite link. The center is equipped with facilities such as an operating theatre, a computed –tomography scanner and software. Doctors the telemedicine center can scan, convert and send data images via satellite link to the tele-consult stations at Hyderabad and Chennai.
Narayana Hrudayalaya		Narayana Hrudayalaya, located in Bangalore is developing as a hub for telecardiology networks with a joint venture between the governments of seven hill states, Government of West Bengal, Karnataka Health Systems and ISRO to create a chain of coronary care units in remote areas and offer modern cardiac care infrastructure. The communication networks between these areas will be arranged through VSAT communication provided by ISRO, free of cost. The Heart Hospital is created as a social welfare venture where 60 per cent of the beds are reserved for working class families who will be offered treatment at subsidised rates. The charitable activities of the institutions is supported by Kiddies Heart Foundation, Sarojini Damodaran Charitable Trust, Mathrubhumi Medical Trust, Bagaria Trust, Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Health Minister’s Relief Fund, Mithun Chakraborty’s Amra, Society for Indian Children’s Welfare, Rotary and Lions Clubs and various other philanthropic organisations.
Pune Primary health telemedicine project	The Pune district administration	The Pune district administration has teamed up with doctoranywhere.com and Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) to launch a telemedicine service from a government primary healthcare center (PHC). The service, launched at three healthcare centers, is targeted at the rural masses. There are 88 PHC's in Pune district, each in-charge of five to six sub-centers. Each PHC has two doctors and basic medical facilities, including operation theatres, laboratory and a pharmacy. It also has 15 personnel who travel to the sub-centers to implement government medical programs. The telemedicine project, later aims to connect all PHC's in the district. In the first phase, three in Wagholi, Chakan and Paud regions would be linked with the district administration of Pune and the specialists. There are at least five to six doctors always present at the headquarters who can respond even if there are no specialists. Ten specialists (two each from each category) have been chosen from dermatology, nephrology, neurology, cardiology and gastroentrology. Doctors at the PHC refer complicated cases to the specialists in major cities who in turn will give their advice within 24 hours. The TCCI has donated three Pentium computers for the project. The district administration will provide computers to other PHC's. The service has started at the PHC's at Hole in Baramati tehsil, Otur in Junnar tehsil and Nirgudsar in Ambegaon tehsil and in another 40 PHC's within a year

Expected Benefits

· Timely access to diagnostic, specialty healthcare advice at the grass root level through the low cost telemedicine network centering around the district hospital as the service provider

· Augmented rural healthcare delivery system by integration of low cost, sustainable, scalable fixed, mobile and hand-held telemedicine technology platform into existing rural healthcare services infrastructure

Mobile Telemedicine Unit covering few villages connected to nearest PHC / CHC or directly to District Hospital

· Automobile Vehicle

o Chasis Size: 5.779 X 2.188 X 1.900 mts

o Customized fabrication to accommodate IT and medical equipments

o Integrated DG set

o Space for tele-consultation, patient examination

o Space for carrying out investigation procedures like Ultra-sonography and X-ray

• Telemedicine Platform

o Selective medical and medico-IT equipments, preferably IT compatible, with interface to Telemedicine and/or other IT software / hardware

o Computer hardware / software platform (PC, server, switch, etc.) and IT electronics equipments

· Connectivity / bandwidth requirements (e.g. ISDN, Leased line, VSAT, Broadband, Wireless)