Telemedicine in India: Initiatives and vision

Abstract

The health of a nation is the product of many factors and forces that combine and interact. Economic growth, per capita income, literacy, education, age at marriage, birth rates, information on health care and nutrition, access to safe drinking water, public and private health care infrastructure, access to preventive health and medical care and the health insurance are among the contributing factors. The advances in medical science and biomedical engineering on one side and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the other are offering wide opportunities for improved health care. Despite making great strides in overall development and uplifting of our largely ruralbased and essentially economically challenged sections of the society, providing proper and desirable levels of health care to them still remains an unfulfilled dream. India is a vast and ancient country with rich history, culture, and traditions coupled with geography and environment that encompasses the entire spectrum of conditions and bio-diversity. To ensure that all sections of the society is able to fully participate in its development and progression has been, continues to be, and will do so in future, a challenge to one and all. With its more than a billion population, there exists a finite limit of elasticity in providing healthcare in terms of infrastructure, facility, manpower and funds. Wide disparities continue to persist between the various income groups, communities, states and even the districts within a state. With a predominantly rural population that are distributed over wide geographical locations, apart from the densely populated urban areas, providing even the basic and minimally acceptable healthcare has been and continues to be the priority of Indian health administrators. Further this is compounded by the following factors like: Low paying capacity of the rural population Lack of investment in health care in rural areas. Inadequate medical facilities in rural & inaccessible areas. Problem of retaining doctors in rural areas where they are required to serve & propagate widespread health awareness. Specialist doctors cannot be retained at rural areas as they will be professionally isolated and become obsolete and even monetary incentives also cannot prevent it. The facts on India's health care situation are as follows: A recent survey by the Indian Medical society has found 75% of qualified consulting doctors practice in urban centers and 23% in semi urban areas and only 2% from rural areas whereas majority of the patients come from rural areas. Hospital beds / 1000 people are 0.19 in rural and 2.2 in urban areas. Telemedicine will contribute to the availability of quality health care to those in need irrespective of socio economic and geographical disparities and it should be available for the benefit of all people located in rural, remote and inaccessible places, and to further enhance its end-to-end capability © 2007 IEEE.