‘Telemedicine is set to revolutionise health care system’

Dr LS Satyamurthy, director of ANTRIX and Telemedicine Programme Coordinator, ISRO, speaks to Vijaya K on the scope of telemedicine in rural health care and ISRO’s plans to make the most of it.

What is the role of IT in telemedicine?

The advances and convergence of IT and telecommunication can bring the entire health care services to the patient’s doorstep. Telemedicine is delivery of health care information across distances using telecom technology. This includes transfer of images like X-rays, CT, MRI, ECG, etc. from patient to expert doctors seamlessly, apart from the live video conferencing between the patient at remote hospital with the specialists at the super speciality hospital for tele-consultation and treatment.

Has telemedicine in health care been successful in reaching out to the rural masses?

Telemedicine has been successful in reaching masses and telemedicine is set to revolutionise the health care system because it is one of the innovative methods of connecting two distant hospitals through Satcom-based communication link. It may be noted that generally 90 per cent of the patients do not require surgery and if so the doctor generally need not touch the patient, and in that case both need not to be at the same place. They can be at different locations and still the patient can be treated. Telemedicine makes an ordinary doctor in rural area do extraordinary work since the doctor is advised by the specialist in handling the medical problems including emergencies. Further, the needy patient need not undertake long and difficult journey to towns and cities, especially when the condition of the patient is serious like in case of heart attack or trauma. There will be cost-saving in terms of reduced necessity to travel for the patient and the family when telemedicine facility is used.

What are the various projects of ISRO?

ISRO as the part of application of space technology has initiated a number of pilot projects under GRAMSAI (Rural Satellite) programme in the area like water shed development, drinking water mission, tele-education and more importantly telemedicine which is a project of deep social relevance.

ISRO has initiated a number of telemedicine pilot projects which are very specific to the needs of development of our society. ISRO telemedicine projects consist of linking hospitals in remote and inaccessible areas with superspeciality hospital located in the city through Indian National Satellite (INSAT). Remote areas covered are J&K and Ladakh in North, offshore islands of Andaman and Lakshadweep, interior parts of Orissa, north-eastern states of country and some tribal districts in the mainland states.

How important is telemedicine for India?

Telemedicine is most effective for India which is vast and has different regions like the mountain region of J&K and Ladakh, far-flung areas of North East and offshore islands of Andaman and Lakshadweep. With a majority of our population living in rural area and majority of doctors living in urban areas, telemedicines can be the only solution for providing improved health care for benefits like improved access, reduced cost, reduced isolation of doctors and finally improved quality of health care.

What are the different partnerships that ISRO has?

Major state government and super-speciality hospitals have come forward and requested support from ISRO for setting up telemedicine facility. It is not capital-intensive. The cost of telemedicine system and VSAT communication is around Rs 12 lakh per site.

Do we have trained staff to handle telemedicine systems?

The hospitals get their manpower trained for utilisation of telemedicine facility which is provided by the telemedicine system vendors.

What is the potential of telemedicine in the Indian context?

The telemedicine has good potential to grow since it provides speciality health care to the remote hospitals. The growth could be the connectivity between a) district hospitals/ health centres and super-speciality hospitals in the cities. b) Community Health Centres (CHC) at block level and district hospital and c) Primary Health Centre (PHC) at village level and community health centres for health care and delivery of medical advice. Further, there could be a network of super-speciality hospitals providing telemedicine consultation to any of the regions.

What are the challenges ahead for telemedicine?.

The major challenges ahead include evolving an effective operations and revenue model for making the telemedicine facility self-sustainable through innovative health insurance schemes with public and private institutions partnerships for assuring quality health care to the citizens.