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Introduction

Nurses no longer have to wake up the lone doctor in some rural area when the sick and injured rush to the hospital emergency room. They will quickly assess the patient, and in serious cases, fire up the camera, monitor, and will establish link with the hospital in the city.
The nurse would place an electronic stethoscope over the patient's chest so the doctor can listen to the heartbeat, put an otoscope into the patient's ear so the doctor can check for an ear infection, or send an X-ray so the doctor can spot a broken bone - all from a remote location.

All this can be made possible with the help of Telemedicine.

What is Telemedicine?

Information technology has dramatically changed the way we lead our lives and through telemedicine, it will change the way in which healthcare is delivered to millions of people in the country. Before going further, let us understand the concept of telemedicine.

Telemedicine, in simple words, is a method by which patients can be examined, investigated, monitored, and treated, with the patient and the doctor located at different places. It is also referred to as "healing by wire". It was considered as an experiment earlier, but Telemedicine is a reality today and is here to stay.

Advantages of Telemedicine

Telemedicine can act as a lifeline for the poor, especially in countries such as India. In a developing country such as India, there is huge inequality in health-care distribution. Majority of population of India lives in villages but on the other side majority of doctors are based in cities. Also the poor infrastructure of rural health centers makes it impossible to retain doctors in villages, who feel that they become professionally isolated and outdated if stationed in remote areas. In addition, poor Indian villagers spend most of their out-of-pocket health expenses on travel to the specialty hospitals in the city and for staying in the city during treatment.

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* Contributed by: -
Himanshu Arora,
Student of PGDM,
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida.