Doctor is On

Medical consultation has donned a new apron with virtual house calls in the shape of telemedicine.

By Raksha Arun

With the advent of telemedicine, distance is no longer a hurdle in providing healthcare to remote areas. Telemedicine practices in India have slowly and steadily gained a foothold and superior medical treatment has truly become accessible wherever you may be.

Equitable distribution of healthcare services has proven to be a major goal in public health management time and again. “The success of telemedicine rests largely on infrastructure. Upgrading infrastructure will be essential for telemedicine to succeed and the effectiveness of telemedicine depends on the practitioners’ competence in specific skills, some of which are different from those required for a traditional face-to-face medical system,” says Dr.G.Sairamanan.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) made a modest beginning in telemedicine in India with a Telemedicine Pilot Project in 2001, linking Chennai’s Apollo Hospital with the Apollo Rural Hospital at Aragonda village in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.

Dr Sairamanan says that the advantages of using telemedicine during times of the pandemic for ongoing management of chronic diseases such as bronchial asthma, hypertension, and diabetes are tremendous. “

During a time when social distancing is encouraged this is a welcome innovation. When you need to provide psychological support to patients and their family members without getting exposed also helps in reducing the burden on the tertiary hospitals by providing diagnosis and treatment to patients in their own location,” says he. WHO recommends a doctor-population ratio of 1:1000 while the current doctor population ratio in India is only 0.62:1000. Especially for the people living in the rural sector, this practice has more benefits since it would save traveling time, it is cost effective and gives immediate access to healthcare services. A standard telemedicine kit includes equipment like non-invasive digital thermometer, pulse oximeter, multi parameter blood analyser, electrocardiogram, android tablet, rapid test detectors and a medical record repository,” says Dr.Sairamanan.

Telemedicine also helped in shouldering the challenge of health care during massive gatherings. Through mobile telemedicine vans equipped with videoconferencing systems for visual communication have enabled doctors in remote places connect to any of the telemedicine- enabled medical hospital for an expert opinion.“Telehealth is a key tool which would help in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. For example, telemedicine was extensively used during the Ebola crisis in Africa and has a high potential for improving epidemiological investigation and clinical case management.” says Dr Sairamanan. “The working of telemedicine is complex yet useful since it could also help in monitoring patients who receive vaccines or medicines using tools and portable vital signs, says Dr Sairamanan. During the pandemic it extensively helped in tracking, mapping, monitoring and quarantining communities to prevent the spread of the infection.