Telemedicine is the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide clinical healthcare at a distance.
Opportunities for telemedicine
- Telemedicine is helpful for people living in rural areas. This is very crucial for India, since 70% of the population lives in rural areas.
- Telemedicine helps overcome the shortage of health professionals. India currently has only 0.7 physicians per 1000 people while China and Russia have 5 and 1.5 respectively.
- Telemedicine is a better option while dealing with particularly infectious diseases like swine flu.
Developments in Telemedicine
- The Indian government has launched the SEHAT initiative to connect 60,000 common service centres nationwide and provide health care services to citizens. This will dovetail with the Digital India Initiative.
- In 2009, KIDROP programme was launched in Karnataka to screen infants for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness. Its success has led to it being replicated in two more States.
Telemedicine is a very useful way for the government to provide affordable healthcare to all, with the help of private players and NGOs.