Telemedicine - Distant Medical Treatment

“The mission of Information and Communication Technology and related services is one of the wealth generators for the nation………… The benefits of ICT must reach all parts of the country through telemedicine, tele-education and e-governance”. …………. Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

CONNECTIVITY DIAGRAM:

The role of Telemedicine in the state of Tripura’s journey towards e-governance was marked as potentially important way back in 2005 when the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India sponsored a pilot Telemedicine project for development and implementation in Tripura Government Hospitals. Proposed to be developed and run using the Leased Line communication network, WEBEL Electronic Communication Systems Ltd (Webel ECS Ltd.), a wholly owned subsidiary of West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd., a Govt. of W.B. Undertaking, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for development of technology, worked on the project.

In 2005, the first telemedicine network in Tripura was set up with the referral center at GB Pant Hospital and IGM Hospital, Agartala and five other nodal centers at the Amarpur SDH, Kanchanpur SDH, Gandacherra SDH, Chailengta SDH and Kathalia PHC. The network was inaugurated by Shri Tapan Chakraborty, the Hon’ble Health and Family Welfare Minister of the state on 9th June, 2005.

The second and third Telemedicine projects on the development and application of Telemedicine for Tripura Government Hospitals using 512 kbps / 2 mbps leased lines from BSNL were also been sponsored by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Government of India. The projects have been implemented by WEBEL ECS Ltd. in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur. Over 21000 patients were treated in six years (from June, 2005 to June, 2011) using this network.

The major disciplines covered under this service are medicine, radiology, orthopedics, pediatrics, gynecology, surgical, dermatology, etc. In the initial years, more than 50% of patient referrals were for cases of general medicine. But for last few years, there were significant increase in number consultations in radiology and orthopedics also. In 2010-2011, these three disciplines almost equally shared the load, which was around 75% of the total patient referrals. It is also heartening to see that every year the number of patients treated through telemedicine is increasing. Last year over 7000 patients got the benefit of this technology. The State Government is also proactive in the sustenance of the services. After the completion of the project period, the state government took special initiative for arranging funds from National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for maintenance of the systems and supporting trained manpower to the telemedicine centers.

Telemedicine network has been established in the following hospitals:

The concept of Telemedicine can be utilized for other purposes like: -

• Distance Learning & Continuing Medical Education (CME)



• Training for isolated or rural health practitioners.



• Video Conferencing for administrative purpose.

• Pear to pear applications



• Different instruments such as ECG recorders, X- Ray scanners can be integrated with the system.
  
  
• Bandwidth scalability POTS, ISDN, VSAT, etc



• Structure form based data entry module for different classes of diseases.



• Internet browser based GUI for patients data access (text, graphics, audio, video, etc)



• Visualisation and annotation of human profile and medical images (JPEG, BMP, GIF & DICOM)



• HL7 messaging among participating sites.



• Ensure confidentiality of patients’ personal information



• Supports statistical report generation



• Backup and restore utility



• Back-end RDBMS support.

Hon’ble Sri Tapan Chakraborty, Minister Health &FW, Govt. of Tripura inaugurating Telemedicine Project in Tripura on June 9, 2005

Hon’ble Sri Tapan Chakraborty, Minister Health & FW, Govt. of Tripura inaugurating Telemedicine Project in Tripura on August 29, 2007

PATIENT TREND:

Total No. of Patient Treated upto 31.03.2011 (West Bengal & Tripura): 21000 approx.

SOME REFERRED PATIENTS IMAGES

UTILITY OF SPECIALIZED SERVICES:

TOTAL BENEFICIARIES (Year wise breakup)

 

Patient List for the Month of January 2013