The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Telemedicine is `key to taking health care to rural masses'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 13, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Telemedicine is `key to taking health care to rural masses'

Ramya Kannan

Only way to remove disparity in access to health care is medical practice through the net: expert

C.P.Kamle

CHENNAI: : When C.P. Kamle, a consortium member of the American Institute of Medicine and bio-medical engineer, throws shocking facts at you, he is merely preparing a solid ground for his persuasive argument on the role of telemedicine in India.

Some of the facts are upsetting: there are more cardiologists in Chennai than in the entire North East; the bed-population ratio in India is 1:1450; and five per cent of the annual family income is spent on curative healthcare. Dr. Kamle is convinced that the only way to remove the disparity in access to the healthcare systems is to start the practice of medicine through the Internet. With a rural population of nearly 700 million, India will benefit enormously from digital data transmission related to healthcare, he says.

Some efforts have been made, especially in the private sector, with Apollo Hospitals, Escorts Heart Institute and Fortis Healthcare showing the way. The Indian Government too has made important commitments to telemedicine, reducing import tariff on infrastructure requirements.

"Still, it is insufficient," Dr. Kamle says, arguing that India is not tapping its potential in the communication sector to take medicine to rural people.

Lack of specialists

"Theoretically, it is far easier to set up an excellent telecommunication infrastructure in suburban and rural India than to place hundreds of medical specialists in these places," he says.

This way, one of the greatest shortcomings of the Indian healthcare system, the lack of specialists in rural areas, can be overcome almost instantly. Worldwide, there is difficulty in retaining specialists in non-urban areas.

It is now time for yet another batch of statistics: 65 per cent of 1100 million will be literate by 2005; 4,00,000 villages have telephone connectivity; the total number of Internet users will be above 20 million (May-June 2005). These statistics serve the same purpose and are merely on the other side of the telemedicine spectrum.

Building hospitals

His company, Dr.Kamle's Prescription, has been involved in building hospitals in several countries across the world, including Africa, America and India.

Telemedicine will define a clear health delivery vision for the nation, he says.

Standardisation in treatment, practices and price will be the natural outcome, accompanying improved access to health care.

His closing statement is more emphatic than the opening, reinforcing his conviction: "It might be one small step for IT, but a giant leap for health care."

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