The Hindu : New Delhi News : Global convention on telemedicine, e-health

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 20, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Global convention on telemedicine, e-health

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Capital these days is playing host to the first "Global Convention and Expos on Telemedicine and e-Health" in an effort to enable telemedicine to reach the rural health care delivery system. The five-day international convention and expo that opened on Friday has been organised by the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, with support from key telemedicine partners. The convention has brought together experts in the area from across the world including Pakistan, Japan and Taiwan.

Speaking about the convention, Prof. S. K. Mishra, head of the Department of Endocrine Surgery at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, said: "India is a vast country with a multi-million population. However, there is no national health insurance policy for the country. The Government-supported health care delivery follows a three-tier system and is the primary responsibility of each State. The scale of e-health services in India has been very small so far considering its size, limited to medical transcription, health awareness through portals, telemedicine, hospital management system and customer services using the net." "In principle," Prof. Mishra added, "telemedicine has bridged the urban-rural divide by taking health care to the interiors of the country.

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