Telemedicine Services Project in Rajasthan :

Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. It has been used to overcome distance barriers and to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities.

Telemedicine (also referred to as “telehealth” or “e-health”) allows health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients in remote locations using telecommunications technology. Telemedicine allows patients in remote locations to access medical expertise quickly, efficiently and without travel. Telemedicine provides more efficient use of limited expert resources who can “see” patients in multiple locations wherever they are needed without leaving their facility.

National Health Mission, Rajasthan has implemented the Telemedicine Services at different type of health institutions (District Hospital/ Sub Division Hospital/ Community Health Centre). The initiative was envisioned mainly to improve a patient’s clinical health status where the availability of specialist doctors is limited via electronic communication and technology. The proposed intervention seeks to utilize specialist services of different medical specialties like General Physician/ General Medicine/ Orthopadician/ Obstetrician & Gynaecologist/ Gastrologist/ Endocrinologist/ Pediatrician/ Cardiologist/ Nephrologist/ Neurologist / Oncologist etc. The project includes video-conferencing between specialist at the centralized call centre (Central Site) and doctor at the health institution (Remote Site), transmission of still diagnostic images, remote monitoring of vital signs, continuing medical education/ capacity building etc using telemedicine and other pre-requisite software, computer hardware, printer, networking, network communication, medical equipments.

Objective :

The main objectives of the project are to cross geographical barriers and provide specialist healthcare services to rural and remote areas, to make it beneficial for the population living in isolated communities. Besides this, other advantages of telemedicine are: -

• Better delivery of specialists services to patients living in isolated or remote regions, where the availability of specialist’s doctors is limited. It facilitates patients and rural practitioners access to specialist health services and support.
• During emergency situations and critical healthcare needs where moving a patient may be undesirable and/or not feasible.
• Access to the quality health services and elimination of distance barriers. It provides more convenience to the patients due to reduction in transportation cost of patient and to health professionals due to reduction in unnecessary travel time
• Helpful in medical education, share best practices and capacity building of doctors
• In the project medical information of patient is transferred through telemedicine software using internet or other communication network/ channel and medical equipments for the purpose of counselling, remote medical procedures/ examinations. On which health specialist at centralized call centre and doctor at health institution would discuss the patient’s condition, symptoms, other critical observation via video-conferencing and other medical equipments with real time.

Telemedicine has been growing rapidly because it offers four fundamental benefits:

Improved Access – For over 40 years, telemedicine has been used to bring healthcare services to patients in distant locations over the globe. Not only does telemedicine improve access to patients but it also allows physicians and health facilities to expand their reach, beyond their own offices. Given the provider shortages throughout the world--in both rural and urban areas--telemedicine has a unique capacity to increase service to millions of new patients.

Cost Efficiencies – Reducing or containing the cost of healthcare is one of the most important reasons for funding and adopting telehealth technologies. Telemedicine has been shown to reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times, and fewer or shorter hospital stays.

Improved Quality – Studies have consistently shown that the quality of healthcare services delivered via telemedicine are as good those given in traditional in-person consulations. In some specialties, particularly in mental health and ICU care, telemedicine delivers a superior product, with greater outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Patient Demand – Consumers want telemedicine. The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family and their community. Using telemedicine technologies reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient. Over the past 15 years, study after study has documented patient satisfaction and support for telemedical services. Such services offer patients the access to providers that might not be available otherwise, as well as medical services without the need to travel long distances.

Future Role of Telemedicine  :

The use and role of telemedicine in critical care and ICU medicine is expected to increase. This technology allows subspecialists to extend the reach of their expertise more quickly and over longer distances. Critical care physicians will be able to provide better consultations to remote locations, resulting in higher quality of care. Referring hospitals and physicians will ideally be supported to care for less ill patients that previously were referred to urban tertiary care centers. All these advantages are to the benefit of the patient, the patient’s family, the remote physician, the local hospital, regional health care systems, and ideally for payers. Different models of care using different technologies will be used depending on the needs of the patients, the remote hospitals, and the regional ICUs. Data have been evaluated and will be updated defining telemedicine impact on efficiency, clinical outcomes, and cost-effectiveness to better define where, when, and for whom the technologies are most clinically and economically effective

In the time to come, it is obvious that telemedicine will play a significant role in completely revolutionalizing the entire health care industry. With the advancement in cutting edge technology it will be lot easier to extend affordable health care in distant location and reach out to such remote communities.