The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) plays a vital role in the telemedicine system of evaluating, diagnosing and treating underserved populations living in resource-starved regions, said AIIMS, New Delhi Dean AK Mahapatra at a programme organised by the Orissa Trust of Technical Education and Training (OTTET).
Mahapatra said the telemedicine should be incorporated in the Community Health Centre (CHCs) as experts in developed areas can diagnose and treat patients of rural areas. If the projects like PAN India, medical-college networking and inter-State networking can be implemented in the country, then we can also massively use telemedicine to provide better treatment to people in remote areas, he said.
He also said the State Government should see all the school health programmes are manipulated and connected in such a way that schoolchildren in each school can know if they have high blood pressure, body mass index, height and other important problems. “If we prevent these diseases before the age of 20 years, we can prevent them from being affected by such fatal diseases.”
However, a major concern about the developmental initiative in general and ICT based developmental projects in particular is that many of these projects don’t survive beyond the initial implantation stages.
There is gap between the hospital and bed, population and doctor and equipment and trained manpower. In this context, the telemedicine facilities, can provide healthcare support to rural people, is the need of the hour, he added.
BPUT former VC Prof Omkar Nath Mohanty, MoP and NG high level committee member Sidhartha Pradhan and OTTET advisory board member DK Roy also spoke on the occasion.