Telemedicine: Service sustainability in rural India

Abstract

Economic growth, literacy, education, socio economic demography, sanitation, water, public and private health care infrastructure, and the health insurance are among the contributing factors to the health of a nation. India today has more than 1 billion people and providing health care in terms of infrastructure, facility, the manpower and the funding is limited. The population is predominantly rural and distributed in distant geographical locations apart from the high-density urban areas; to provide the basic minimum health care to such a diverse and scattered population becomes a challenging proposition. However, the advances in medicine, medical science and ICT together are offering wide opportunities for improved health care and providing a tangential solution to the problem at hand. In fact, the offering when you bring both worlds together; the adaptation of Telemedicine technology offers one of the best options for delivering healthcare for rural and geographically distant population spread across India. Earlier, even though there was a need and experimentation was being done in many segments, the technology available was not able to provide a stable, sustainable solution. However, now with advancements in ICT, we see resurgence in telemedicine and e-health initiatives.