APOLLO TELEMEDICINE

Telemedicine or medical care through technology seems to be the answer to millions of Indians languishing in remote villages without proper medical attention. In most Indian villages there are very few registered physicians and there is a total lack of diagnostic facilities. Typically, in Indian villages the patient has to travel to the nearest town if he has to get some tests done. And diagnosis is another ordeal. He has to find the right specialist for the ailment he has. Most qualified doctors are unwilling to practice in primary health centres in villages for fear of isolation from the medical community. 80% of our population lives in rural India, but 80% of the medical community lives in cities.

In such a scenario, the Telemedicine project set up by Apollo Hospitals has come as a boon that disregards geographical distances and proposes to reach medical care to every nook and corner of India. Through Telemedicine it is now possible for any person living in any remote corner of India to send his test reports to the best hospitals in India for an analysis by a specialist and obtain appropriate prescription and medical advice, all in less than a day.

Under the Telemedicine project, clinical information and records of a patient are converted into electronic digital data and sent through ISDN/VSAT lines to a medical expert. Who in turn gives the diagnosis and treatment advice, via the same channel.

A pilot project was launched by Apollo Hospitals last year in Aragonda village in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. As part of this pilot project, Apollo had constructed a 50 bed multi-speciality hospital, having facilities such as CT scan, x-ray, a laboratory, minor and major operation theatres and an eight-bed ICU. The project proposed to cater to a rural population of 50,000 of 1,500 families living in Aragonda and the surrounding six villages. This project works through a well connected network of primary, secondary and tertiary health care centres. So all that is required is access to a telephone and a PC to get logged on to this project.

Accordng to Dr P C Reddy, "The main objective behind setting up these telemedicine centres is to address the health care problems of the rural population in India and the Developing World. Our ultimate aim is to connect four billion people worldwide with all our hospitals in the country''.

Apollo Hospitals is the first Hospital in the Afro-Asian Region to enter into the world of telemedicine. It is the only hospital to be invited to represent India and the whole of Asia to participate in the 6th International Conference on Telemedicine conducted in Uppasala, Sweden. Apollo Hospitals was represented by Professor K Ganapathy, Medical Director (Telemedicine) and Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman. Apart from India the teleconference connected participants from Argentina, America, Australia, France, Sweden, Belgium, Monaco, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia and Senegal.

Speaking to the press before the teleconference, Dr Reddy said that Apollo has mastered the technology for telemedicine, and would be ready the moment the bandwidth and connectivity problem is solved. He also said that India is on its way to become top of the world through telemedicine. "We are going to be top of the world not only because of technology, but also because of our expertise in medical care and because of the dedication exhibited by our medical fraternity". This is proved by the fact that already Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and some countries from South Africa have asked Apollo Hospitals for connections.

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