Mysore, May 22 -- Narayana Hrudayalaya: Caring with compassion reaches out to remote centres with Tele-medicine
India has witnessed a surge in healthcare facilities with private players expanding their portfolio and emphasising on the quality of healthcare. However, majority of the healthcare facilities are limited to urban settlements and the services have failed to reach those who are in dire need of it - rural and small city dwellers.
With the advent of Communication Technology combined with Information Technology, Narayana Hrudayalaya has brought out a simple and cost-effective method to make quality health-care available to the areas that are denied infrastructural development.
The Integrated Tele-medicine Project is the first-of-its-kind initiative, jointly sponsored by Indian Space Research Organi-sation (ISRO), Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore and Asia Heart Foundation in Kolkata.
Abhay P. Singavi, Head of Tele-medicine, Narayana Hrudayalaya, said, "Our aim is to synthesise technology with affordable healthcare. The Tele-medicine Department in Narayana Hrudayalaya has taken us one step closer to our goal."
The satellite-based Tele-medicine network by ISRO has linked remote/rural district hospitals with super-specialty hospitals in major cities via INSAT. While ISRO provides the software, hardware and communication equipment as well as satellite bandwidth, the specialty hospitals provide infrastructure, manpower and maintain the system.
Patients requiring specialist consultation in remote centers can interact directly with the specialists sitting at Narayana Hrudayalaya through video- conferencing. It allows two or more individuals to interact at two different locations through audio and video support, using digital communications link.
The organisations have also developed indigenous software to transmit ECGs with the help of Trans-Telephonic ECG (TT ECG) machines using only phone lines from the remote areas to hub hospitals in Bangalore and Kolkata.
The entire procedure to mete out treatment is done free of cost. Narayana Hrudayalaya has the world's largest ECG network spreading across Tanzania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangla-desh, Mauritius, Malaysia and others countries, covering 253 centres.
Hrudaya Post, yet another brain child of Narayana Hruda-yalaya, connects all the District Head Post offices in Karnataka (25 in number) to Narayana Hrudayalaya through internet and software applications.
A patient can walk into any District Head Post Office with the medical reports and hand it over to the postal staff for uploading the documents (be it paper documents, ECG or even an Angiogram). They would receive the analysed reports within 24hrs which would be handed over the counter or delivered to the doorstep of the patient by post.
Narayana Hrudayalaya also runs the Pan-African e-Network, initiated by former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, focusing on the entire sub-Saharan countries, providing comprehensive Tele-medicine solutions for healthcare. The hospital is connected to 53 City States of Africa and is set to actively deliver healthcare facilities to the masses.
Tele-medicine services at Narayana Hrudayalaya offer solutions for emergency medical assistance, long-distance consultation, administration and logistics, supervision and quality assurance.
The impact of Tele-medicine on health care structures has been significant. The elimination of long waiting periods is crucial when it comes to saving lives. Tele-medicine is fast growing as a tool, instrumental in expanding new healthcare horizons.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Star of Mysore.
Copyright Star of Mysore
Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий