A review on role of telemedicine in disaster management: A pharmacist perspective

Abstract

Telemedicine is the use of electronic means of telecommunication like teleconference, phone or email consultation to transfer the medical data from one place to other place. In India nearly 75% of people live in rural villages. More than 600 million people in rural India lack access to basic health care facilities. Because of poor facilities in health care centers and also people travel to speciality hospitals in cities for their treatment very few doctors are available in the rural areas. More over if any disaster occurs in such regions there is an urgent need for the medicines and specialists. In such cases this telemedicine plays an important tool for diagnosis and treatment of patients who are badly affected and not possible to transfer them. This also helps to create awareness for the people affected by disasters. This helps in reducing the consultation time of specialists. Thus this review focuses on the importance of telemedicine especially in the rural areas as a valuable source for diagnosis and treatment during disasters.