Video conferencing boosts telemedicine

Hospitals are adopting video conferencing to enhance tele-medicine, says Atanu Kumar Das.

Video conferencing is becoming quite popular among hospitals. By using this technology, doctors can help patients who are unable to come to the hospital. It especially benefits the rural populace since one cannot always get good doctors there. Telemedicine has turned out to be a blessing for patients who were otherwise deprived of the best treatment. Polycom is one company that’s providing video conferencing equipment to hospitals for tele-medicine.

A telemedicine system consists of customised hardware and software at two locations—the patient’s as well as the doctor’s end. These locations are usually connected by means of an Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) or Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) link, and the system is controlled by the network hub station of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

According to Yugal Sharma, country manager, Polycom India, “We have been very active in providing video conferencing equipment for tele-medicine. Apollo and Escorts are our principal clients in this area.” The company’s video conferencing solution is called Unified Collaborative Communications (UCC). It helps to provide converged voice, video, web and data solutions for emerging broadband networks, and is designed to integrate with standard video-based medical end-points.

Calling doc

Telemedicine uses information technology to help medical professionals diagnose and treat patients who are at a geographically different location. By transmitting live or stored video, voice and data, these solutions allow people to interact and share information as freely and naturally as if they were there. Polycom’s healthcare solutions are used for clinical applications such as programme screening, patient visits (multiple specialities), remote assists and consultations, home healthcare monitoring, electronic intensive care units, robotic surgery and language assistance.

Broadband has come as a big boost to telemedicine. “With the availability of broadband, India is now becoming a hot destination for tele-medicine as it is a win-win situation for both the patients as well as hospitals,” Sharma states.

The company is also planning to get its Medilink Cart product in the country. This will enable increased contact with patients at remote locations. Medilink integrates the output of multiple devices or non-medical peripherals into a video conference. It also provides consolidated secure storage of medical devices within a cabinet. “Once our Medilink product is available in India, we feel that we would be able to provide most value-added features to our customers,” Sharma remarks.

Apollo makes the most of it

Apollo Hospitals wanted to provide equal medical opportunities to patients located in remote, rural areas, or even in other developing countries. The group wanted a solution that would enable its metropolitan doctors to virtually meet and discuss a rural-patient’s condition without travelling. According to Dr D Lavanian, domain expert and business manager, telemedicine, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation, “We chose Polycom’s UCC solution because the company offers end-to-end communication systems. We got equipment that was easy to use. Moreover, they have a very efficient after-sales support system which was critical as most of our users are in remote places.”

Sharma mentions that Apollo is using video conferencing devices at upwards of 75 locations, and more centres are expected to be covered this fiscal. “Close captioning and voice & touch control are some of the features which ensure better communication. I feel that in the coming years more than 90 per cent of Indian hospitals will opt for video conferencing,” Sharma reflects.

Lavanian also mentions that Polycom offered a standard-based and modular communications solution. This ensured inter-operability with other systems, as well as easy upgradation via software.

The deployment has allowed Apollo doctors in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Colombo, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi to effectively treat patients in remote areas including the Andamans, Aragonda, Temirtau (Kazakhstan), Eluru, Kohima and Srinagar.

“The network now stretches to 76 tele-medicine centres across India, speeding complex consultations and allowing us to offer the same quality of healthcare to rural citizens as we do to their urban-located counterparts,” Lavanian added.

The goal

Telemedicine tools help deliver healthcare in medical disciplines like emergency medicine, behavioural science, dermatology, cardiology, radiology, paediatrics, obstetrics, oncology, dentistry, gastro-enterology, neurology, pathology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, family practice, ophthalmology and rheumatology. As Lavanian puts it, “The primary objective of tele-medicine is to provide quality healthcare assistance to every patient. Video conferencing also ensures that the patients are treated irrespective of their financial condition, and this makes it popular in most countries. I presume India will have tremendous success in the coming years in this field.” It is expected that home-based patient monitoring is also going to become popular, as will remote surgery, which will involve surgery via robotics, with the surgeon in one location and the patient in another.