Dr Imnararo Difusa
CIHSR
Telemedicine is the use of electronic information to communicate, provide and support healthcare services to patients when distance separates them from healthcare providers. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Telemedicine as, “The delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation and for the continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities.”
Although initially considered “futuristic” and “experimental,” telemedicine is today a reality and has come to stay. Telemedicine has a variety of applications in patient care, education, research, administration and public health. Worldwide, people living in rural and remote areas struggle to access timely and good-quality specialty medical care. They often have substandard access to healthcare, primarily because specialist physicians are mostly located in urban areas.
Telemedicine is a service that is rapidly evolving to provide increased access to high-quality healthcare that is efficient and cost-effective. In the face of the current pandemic, providers have been forced to increase their utilization of telehealth services at the expense of traditional face-to-face patient encounters. Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic Christian Institute of Health and Sciences Research (CIHSR) had the opportunity to explore teleconsultation service to reach out to patients who were in dire need to come to the hospital but could not, owing to the stringent lockdown rules imposed to contain its spread. Initially, there was panic among patients who were on regular treatment with the hospital as their revisits were due and they were weary of the continuation of care and treatment. Taking stoke of the situation, the management and IT team along with the co-operative efforts of all doctors and nurses formulated a process to make teleconsultation a reality. Keeping in mind the regulations for Teleconsultation Service laid down by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) we could reach out to patients in need of medical care. Thus, Teleconsultation services in CIHSR kick started on 30th April 2020 making it the first Private Hospital in Nagaland to start the service. It catered to patients who were sick but could not come to the hospital in person and also helped those patients who had chronic diseases and required frequent follow ups with the hospital. Moreover, it proved to be a blessing to patients in remote areas who could not have prompt access to specialty care owing to distance and time. Thus, teleconsultation services still continue to meet the requirement of these patients even to this day and we hope to explore it further. Currently we provide services in almost every field of specialty viz. Dermatology, ENT, Medicine, Gynecology, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Developmental Pediatrics, Physiotherapy, Oncology, Surgery, Urology along with counselling. Thus far, we have done more than 500 teleconsultation. Efforts are on to improve the service delivery with constant feedbacks from the caregivers as well as from the receivers.
It has been observed that during the current pandemic, telemedicine had the potential to greatly improve access to quality and affordable care for patients while maintaining physical distancing for the safety of both patients and providers. Healthcare providers are now looking at Telemedicine as their newly found Avatar.
It does not require too much of a stretch of imagination to realize that telemedicine will soon be just another way to see a health professional. Remote monitoring has the potential to make every minute count by gathering clinical data from many patients simultaneously. However, information may be lost due to a software glitch or hardware meltdown. Therefore, there has to be a smart balance between total dependence on computer solutions and the use of human intelligence. Striking that balance may make all the difference in saving someone's life.
We look forward to the evolution of telemedicine landscape, its utilization during the current pandemic and how we expect this technology to be implemented in the post pandemic world.
The writer is Nodal Officer for Teleconsultation and Consultant, Department of Medicine CIHSR, Dimapur
