The Hindu : National : Cost-effective telemedicine tool for villages

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 27, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Cost-effective telemedicine tool for villages

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: As part of its national e-governance project, the government has decided to integrate all upcoming Common Service Centres (CSCs) across rural India with ‘e-Sanjeevani’, a software package for remote diagnostics and telecounselling.

The web-based software — e-Sanjeevani — that facilitates creation of an electronic medical record (EMR) for a variety of diagnostic reports is being deployed as a cost-effective telemedicine tool for rural areas at over one lakh CSCs being set up as part of the National e-Governance Plan.

Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said the combination of CSCs along with the potential offered by e-Sanjeevani is expected to significantly enhance the outreach of health care.

Health records

“With this initiative, a large number of villagers will be able to have their health records in electronic form, accessible anytime from anywhere. Village level entrepreneurs with minimum training in handling ECG machines and other devices will be able to handle the medical equipment co-located at CSCs.”

Anytime access

The software, developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Mohali, would help in securing a patient’s record through encryption, Mr. Pilot said. It enabled multipoint and multireferral consultation, as well as personalised consultation between patient and doctor, and doctor and doctor. The programme would enable anywhere, anytime access with no installation cost for the user, the Minister said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National