Telemedicine to bring US docs into Indian homes

Mumbai: It will soon be possible to consult US doctors in the comfort of your home. The US government recently announced that the US and India will share a transparent telemedicine system, wherein people will have access to doctors of both countries. 

    Aneesh Chopra, advisor to US President Barack Obama and chief technology officer at the White House, said that there would soon be an open government charter, as a result of which anyone having access to the internet would be able to get health-related information and consultation from doctors overseas. 
    "The potential of health information technology and telemedicine is now shifting to results," said Chopra at the 7th Annual International Telemedicine Congress. "We realized that there are quality healthcare givers in every nook and corner of the world. If all these could be brought together, it will be of great benefit to people at large," he said. 
    India has so far been in a pilot phase so far as telemedicine is concerned. In fact, the theme of the conference, which ended in Mumbai on Sunday, was moving "beyond the pilot phase and leveraging technology for chronic diseases management". 
    According to Chopra, both the governments will be spending on community health, provider directories, quality consumer product information, medical and scientific knowledge and tele-conferencing and data sharing. "As of now, we have invited bids from groups who will design the programme. The main criterion is that each group should have one Indian and one US citizen as members. This will ensure that the group will remain sensitive towards the needs of both countries," said Chopra. 
    Representatives of Polycom, a California-based multinational dealing in unified technology, who were at the conference said that telemedicine in markets such as India is expected to grow rapidly mainly because of the gap between demand and supply of quality healthcare facilities. 
    Polycom's global director Marc Alexis Remond said, "In India, 2% of the healthcare facilities are located in the rural areas where 65% of the population lives. So, Indian families have to travel quite a bit to get healthcare." He added, "Technology could come into play here. Indian villages already have access to technology." Many companies offer tech "clouds" that can provide e-connectivity to carry out not only distance education and ehealthcare, but even government work such as taxes, planning, etc. "There are a number of pilot projects going on in India, but it's time to upscale. While in the West doctors are reluctant to adopt technology, here doctors have themselves taken up telemedicine projects. So, India seems ready for the next step," said Remond. Baramati Model A pilot project being carried out since over a year in Baramati and two other talukas has benefited 18,800 pregnant women. 
    Netbooks were provided to 100 grassroot health workers, who would feed in information about existing and newly pregnant women. "The application itself detects if a mother was high-risk with the help of data like her blood pressure, ECG etc. The health worker visits the primary health centre in her area and as soon as she reaches the centre, her data on the women she is catering to automatically synchronizes with the terminal at the centre," said Atul Bengeri, industry manager from Intel, which conducts the project. TNN