The Promise of Telemedicine ; Quietly, Telemedicine Is Circumventing the Medical Infrastructure Problem by Putting State-of-the-Art Healthcare Within the Reach of Some of the Poorest.

Summary

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In august 2005, when Dr Vikram Muralidharan was trying out the new telemedicine facility at his 25-bed hospital in Annamalai in Tamil Nadu, a bizarre case came up that would reinforce his decision to go in for the new-fangled technology. A tribal, who had been knocked about by an elephant, was wheeled into Dr Muralidharan's hospital, with lacerated bones and eyes popping out of their sockets.

As luck would have it, Dr Muralidharan was actually on a video conference with an orthopaedician in Chennai and an ophthalmologist in Hyderabad. When he was informed of the emergency case, Dr Muralidharan asked the other two doctors to stay online for consulting. Fortunately, the tribal patient had no serious internal injuries. So, with the help of the two specialists, Dr Muralidharan put the tribal's eyes back into their sockets and treated the lacerated bones as well. In just three days, the tribal was back home (determined, perhaps, never to cross the path of an elephant again).

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The Promise of Telemedicine ; Quietly, Telemedicine Is Circumventing the Medical Infrastructure Problem by Putting State-of-the-Art Healthcare Within the Reach of Some of the Poorest.

Mauled by an elephant, saved by a mouse. The nature of the patient and the nature of the technology used to save the tribal's life drive home the promise of telemedicine in a country like India, where medical infrastructure is scarce and patients far flung. By allowing doctors-typically, specialists-to consult even the poorest of poor patients remotely, telemedicin...

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