Providing sustainable healthcare to rural India

Abstract

Telemedicine is the use of Information technology and advanced technologies to provide health care to the patient based at location away from hospitals and health centres. WHO definition of Tele-medicine is “The delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by all health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation and for continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interest of advancing the health of individuals and their communities” . India is a vast country with its population diversified geographically and culturally. According to the Census 2011 there are seven thousand nine hundred and thirty five towns in India. The number of towns has increased by nearly two thousand and five hundred since last Census. The total number of towns, which constitutes the urban frame, is over six thousand in the country. The total urban population in the country as per Census 2011 is more than two hundred and eighty million which constitutes 27.8% of the total population . Whereas there are over six lakh and thirty thousand villages in India and more than seven hundred and forty million people live in these areas. Modern health care is yet to mark road into most of these rural areas. Majority of the people in these areas earn less than $2 a day and are not in the state to afford modern health care. Moreover the villages are fragmented and a large part of it comprises of people less than 200 persons. Adding to these is the unavailability of medium to reach these people given the infrastructure in these villages. Even the primary health care or the sub centres present in these areas are highly inadequate. Despite the several initiatives and huge investments by both the government of India and private healthcare giants, quality healthcare is still a dream in these areas. Thus one thrust area which can provide quality health care to the rural area is Telemedicine. The telemedicine facility shall reach out the population in the rural part of India and provide counselling and diagnosis without letting them to traverse long distances and without incurring much cost. The most common tool used nowadays in telemedicine is interactive video and audio sessions to provide consultations and procedures to patients. Sometimes several physicians meet together through telemedicine network to consult with a patient. Telemedicine also helps in video briefings, recording consultations etc. Telemedicine is also a great tool to maintain patient records, provide wide liberty to access databases, subscriptions, journals, research papers and libraries on the web and private records.