Telemedicine utilization focusing on telemedicine speciality centre under ISRO in Bangalore medical college - A descriptive study.

Abstract

Background Tele means distance and media is to heal. It is the use of electronic information to communicate technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participants. Telemedicine plays a vital role when distance is the critical factor for imparting delivery of health services. India being a huge country of over 32 lakh sq. km and population over 1.2 billion. India has a huge urban rural divide of 68 living in rural. It also has inaccessible hilly regions islands desert coasts tribal areas. 75 of the qualified doctorrsquos practice in urban areaswhich covers only 28 of countryrsquos population. To provide the basic minimum healthcare for Indiarsquos population telemedicine play a pivotal role. India has a huge number of highly trained IT Human resource professionals. The primary aim is to reach the unreached through information management of the patients giving low cost benefits delivering service to large population.Objective was to study the utilization of telemedicine focusing on Telemedicine Speciality Centre TSC at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute and to explore the centre characteristics of Telemedicine Speciality Centre.Methods The Study comprised of analysis of recorded data of telemedicine store forward and real-time telemedicine consultations over a period of 1 year. Data entered in MS excel sheet and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using SPSS software version 20.0 Results expressed in terms of percentages tables and graphs.Results A total teleconsultations of 1285 in 1 year were included in the study. Of these 23.7 were of store forward type while the 980 were of video conferencing sessions. Of the total consultations 981 were of dermatology and rest others in the field of neurology medicine surgery.Conclusion Telemedicine is a science in its infancy. As the major consultations being in the field of dermatology healing minor ailments it definitely reduces the cost of the patients in terms of travel and also benefits the patients by reducing consultation waiting time.