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“TSI
can suggest formation of telemedicine guidelines”
 Dr
Saroj Mishra, professor and head of dept. of endocrine
surgery, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow is the nominated member
of national committee on standardisation in telemedicine.
He is the organizing secretary, First Annual Conference
of Telemedicine Society of India scheduled to be held
on November 2002. He is instrumental in developing telemedicine
facility at SGPGIMS since 1999. He is also involved
in R&D in telemedicine application, namely the Kumbh
Mela and Manas Sarovar telemedicine projects. Excerpts
from an interview with Rita Dutta:
When
was the proposal to form the Telemedicine Society of
India mooted and what objectives would it serve?
During
the national conference on telemedicine held at Lucknow
on April 2001 the idea of forming a national scientific
body dedicated to the science of telemedicine was mooted,
and thus the Telemedicine Society of India (TSI) was born.
The
objective of this society will be: a. promotion of telemedicine
technology by educating health care providers and administrators
on the technical and application aspects in telemedicine.
This would help incorporating health care delivery system
towards improving health delivery to people living in
rural areas, and using it for distance medical education
and other areas like epidemiology and public health education.
b.
providing a common platform for industry, health care
providers, health administrators, information & communication
technology professionals and health insurance sectors
for sharing their experience in R & D and providing
guidelines to facilitate policy decisions by government
on standardization of tele-health service.
How
many members would TSI have and how would they be selected?
Currently
the society has 125 members. All those who participated
in the last conference were eligible as founding members
if they wished to enroll. Health professionals, health
administrators, it & communication professionals,
telehealth service providers, health insurance professionals
who are interested in the art and science of telemedicine
are eligible to become members of TSI.
Would
the society help in drafting of national guidelines for
telemedicine?
The
Ministry of Information Technology is involved in this
process. TSI society can suggest to policy makers and
facilitate in formation of the guidelines.
Please
give an overview of telemedicine facility at SGPGIMS.
SGPGIMS
has taken a lead in the country in this emerging health
technology. With a modest beginning in the later part
of 1999, several telemedicine projects have been undertaken
till date. Telemedicine facility has been created at SGPGIMS
with the financial input from the state government and
MIT. The institute is trying to attract industry to collaborate
in R&D. An MoU is being evolved with the Online Telemedicine
Research Institute, Ahmedabad with a financial commitment
of Rs. 50.00 lacs over five years. SGPGIMS has submitted
proposal to different agencies like Ministry of Health
and UGC for additional funding to set up a school of health
informatics.
Can
you elaborate on the Kumbh Mela telemedicine project,
which brings the application of telemedicine for large
congregation in a festival?
This
project was undertaken during the Mahakumbhmela at Allahabad
in the month of January-February this year. This was aimed
at taking appropriate corrective measures in the event
of disaster at the earliest possible time. Telemedicine
control stations were established at mela hospital, Allahabad
medical college, office of DGHS, mela control room at
the Secretariat annexe and SGPGIMS. This project was quite
successful in achieving all its objectives.
How
successful was the telemedicine project for Kailash Manas
Sarovar pilgrims?
The
telemedicine team comprising one doctor and one telemedicine
engineer joined the 12th batch of pilgrims at Dharchula
base camp. From Dharchula they sent the ECG tracings and
typed data using PSTN communication medium that was well
received at SGPGIMS and the reply was also received. Beyond
Dharchula, our team tried transmitting data by using satellite
phone since PSTN was not available beyond Dharchula. There
was a failure in transmitting the data using satellite
communication medium beyond Dharchula.
When
will the collaborative MIT-project between SGPGIMS, AIIMS,
PGIMER, C-DAC, and CEDTI be
completed?
The
project is going to finish on 31st March 2003. C-DAC and
CEDTI are supposed to develop software and interphase
with accessories like telepathology, teleradiology, telecardiology
and video-conferencing and all the three premier institutes
are supposed to test this software. All the above institutes
are to be linked by broad band communication network (384
Kbps ISDN) and exchange various educational and research
activities utilising this software. Currently, telemedicine
workstations have been established in all the three institutes
and linkage with ISDN telephone in place. Software is
going to be installed soon. |
