Establishment of telemedicine centres under study

With a view to providing modern healthcare facilities to people particularly of rural and far flung areas, the Punjab government, under the Chief Minister's Vision - Health for All - is considering a proposal for establishment of telemedicine centres across the province.
Sources in the provincial health department told Business Recorder here on Saturday that government considers that telemedicine technology can play a revolutionary role in providing modern healthcare facilities to rural people. Therefore, the provincial government is studying a proposal for establishing telemedicine centres in all the districts of the province from where the people could contact with the experts of medical fields through fast communication links and benefit from medical facilities.
Through the facility of telemedicine, the patients of rural and far-flung areas would be able to contact the specialist doctors and professors with the help of cell phones. The private sector would also be provided all possible facilities in the establishment of telemedicine centres, the sources said.
According to them, telemedicine is the transfer of electronic medical data (ie high resolution images, sounds, live video and patient records) from one location to another. This transfer of medical data may utilise a variety of telecommunications technologies, including, telephone lines, ISDN, the Internet, intranets, and satellites.
The sources said that telemedicine is utilised by health providers in a growing number of medical specialities, including, but not limited to dermatology, oncology, radiology, surgery, cardiology, psychiatry and home health care. 'People living in rural and remote areas struggle to access timely, quality speciality medical care. Residents of these areas have substandard or no access to speciality health care, primarily because specialist physicians are more likely to be located in areas of concentrated population. Because of innovations in computing and telecommunications technology, many elements of medical practice can be accomplished when the patient and healthcare provider are geographically separated', the sources said.