Chandigarh, July 27
The concept of telemedicine may still be a distant dream in India, but if developed and taken right to the community hospitals, it can prove to be very beneficial, especially in giving timely treatment to wounded soldiers or plague patients, as a majority of the specialists prefer being stationed at big urban centres, with the rural populace being the real sufferer.

The PGI had taken the lead in the country by starting the Rs 7-crore telemedicine project, funded by the Health and Biotechnology Division of the Ministry of Information Technology, two years back. Headed by Dr B.D. Gupta, the project has just been granted one year’s extension. Though being used in certain private hospitals, telemedicine is still in its infancy in India.

Telemedicine is defined as the practice of diagnosis, consultation and treatment between physicians and distant patients through the use of telephone and computers that transmit data for remote television viewing and treatment from a distance.

The concept of telemedicine will, no doubt, provide access to areas that are unserved but will also improve access to speciality care and reduce commuting time and cost for rural and semi-urban patients. Aptly called “healing by wire”, telemedicine makes use of the advances in the field of information technology for betterment of medical facilities, especially those located in remote areas.

“Had we developed the concept of telemedicine in this region, plague patients, who were brought from all the way from Rohru in Shimla district could have been treated at the community hospital there only”, remarked Dr Gupta. He said under such circumstances if telemedicine is put to use, patients are not only saved from the threat of getting infection but timely treatment can be given to those afflicted by it. It may be recalled that attendant of one of the patients in the same ward, where plague patients were being treated, had died after contracting the ailment, last year.

Dr Gupta whose book titled, “Introducing Telemedicine”, will be released within a few days, says that now the Army, too, is considering putting the concept of telemedicine to use for saving the lives of the wounded soldiers, who die for lack of specialist treatment being available in the field. The USA has already been using this concept to treat its soldiers at their hospitals located in the field.

The Telemedicine Project at the PGI, has five premier institutes including the PGI, AIIMS, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Centre for Development of Advanced Computer Application, Pune, and CEDTI, SAS Nagar coordinating with each other. At present the patients do not have access to this facility in the PGI, as it is being used only for academic work and teaching .

After the completion of the tenure of Dr Gupta, as Coordinator and Adviser of this project, Dr S.K Jain and Dr Rajwant are looking after the project.” The entire work done during the project would prove to be futile if a separate department of telemedicine is not created or it is at least offered as a service facility by the PGI,” observed one of the doctors.

The real purpose behind this project was to percolate it down right to the community level, so that those who do not have access to specialised health services can benefit. “The initial plan was to link not only the district hospital but even the community health centres either to the PGI or the respective medical colleges,” revealed Dr Gupta. He added that the report of the project would be submitted but it was for the various state governments in the northern region to adopt it and link all the hospitals to bigger institutes.

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