Connecting patients in remote places to specialists in Lucknow
The telemedicine system implemented at KGMU is benefitting patients of seven district hospitals and 15 village health centres
LUCKNOW : Since the past two days, seriously ill patients in Basti, Siddhartha Nagar, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Deoria and Kushinagar districts have been getting medical consultancy from specialist doctors in Lucknow -- and without even visiting the state capital.
The ‘HealthRADAR’, a telemedicine system implemented at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU), is helping these patients receive tertiary care, with district / village level doctors interacting with experts sitting in Lucknow over the internet. It has already connected seven district hospitals and 15 village health centres to the state capital.
“If we talk from the perspective of individual patients, they save around ₹2,000 by getting consultancy over the telemedicine system, instead of coming to Lucknow from say Basti or Maharajganj. The savings include both travel cost and time,” said Dr Sheetal Verma, nodal officer in-charge, HealthRADAR, KGMU.
The service was started to bring relief to the thousands of patients who travel from different smaller cities and even other states to Lucknow, seeking advise from the super specialists here, said Dr Sudhir Singh, spokesperson, KGMU.
“Statistically, patient load is increasing by 12-16% each year in India. However, in comparison, the number of doctors is increasing only by 5-6%. In such a scenario, incorporating technology into our healthcare system is a good solution,” he said.
Explaining the system’s working, Prof Sandeep Tiwari, senior faculty at KGMU, said, “Robotic Triage Kiosks, which gather patient details via a software, have been installed in the district hospitals of Basti, Siddhartha
Nagar, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Deoria and Kushinagar in eastern UP. The software first checks the problem reported by the patient and then suggests the department that should address it.”
“This is especially beneficial in places where there are no experts such as cardiologists. It is also useful in cases of emergency or trauma,” he added.
Dr Verma explained that the platform used artificial intelligence to prepare a record of clinical history, previous treatment and other pertinent details of a patient. This is done with the
help of a trained operator in Hindi. The information is then sent to the super specialist in Lucknow for review and suggestions about further treatment.
Dr Verma said the pilot study was conducted under Prof Rishi Sethi at the cardiology department. “The study data was presented in an international conference organised in the United States of America,” she said.
Similar systems are being made operational in various other medical colleges and government hospitals, such as, the AIIMS, the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur and the Balrampur
Hospital in Lucknow.
“The facility can be expanded to cover 700 community health centres and district hospitals of UP with medical colleges in a similar spoke-hub model,” said Prof Ashish Kumar, head, sports medicine department.
The dry run of the system implemented at the KGMU was attended by Prof SN Sankhwar, Prof G P Singh, Prof Ashish Kumar, Prof Sandeep Bhattacharya, Prof Siddhartha Bhatnagar and Dr Rajeev Misra of the medical university.
The system will be formally launched on March 5.