<p> “Lack of interest” among doctors to feed complete information about patients has resulted in under-utilisation of the telemedicine facility at the State-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in the City. <br /><br />At a continuing medical education (CME) programme organised by the hospital here on Monday, Dr K Ravi, Professor of Medicine, said the taluk or the district hospital doctors feed information or send the ECG report, X-ray or CT scan of the patient. <br /><br />Sometimes, the information is incomplete or the quality of the X-ray or the scan is not good enough for the specialist at the other end to provide a proper diagnoses. “This has become a challenge,” he added.<br /><br />Attending on a patient through telemedicine is quite time consuming for doctors who do not put in extra efforts to cater to the needs of patients from the rural areas, he observed. <br /><br />Although the facility was launched in 2004, the telemedicine centre has managed to cater to only 3,286 patients since then. So far, X-rays and CT scans of 1,084 patients and ECG reports of 796 patients have been received and video conference held in 442 cases. <br /><br />The telemedicine facility faced a major glitch from October 2010 to January 2011 when the satellite signals were down.</p>.<p>In February 2011, Hassan, Shikaripur and Dharwad hospitals were connected with the network. <br /><br />However, the connection with Hassan and Shikaripur hospitals was lost in June that year. The obstacle was overcome by providing broadband connection.<br /><br />At the CME programme, doctors from various private hospitals shared their telemedicine expertise in different specialties and the challenges they faced in its implementation. <br />M Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said despite having the technology to provide best treatment to patients from rural areas, the facility was largely being underused.<br /></p>
<p> “Lack of interest” among doctors to feed complete information about patients has resulted in under-utilisation of the telemedicine facility at the State-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in the City. <br /><br />At a continuing medical education (CME) programme organised by the hospital here on Monday, Dr K Ravi, Professor of Medicine, said the taluk or the district hospital doctors feed information or send the ECG report, X-ray or CT scan of the patient. <br /><br />Sometimes, the information is incomplete or the quality of the X-ray or the scan is not good enough for the specialist at the other end to provide a proper diagnoses. “This has become a challenge,” he added.<br /><br />Attending on a patient through telemedicine is quite time consuming for doctors who do not put in extra efforts to cater to the needs of patients from the rural areas, he observed. <br /><br />Although the facility was launched in 2004, the telemedicine centre has managed to cater to only 3,286 patients since then. So far, X-rays and CT scans of 1,084 patients and ECG reports of 796 patients have been received and video conference held in 442 cases. <br /><br />The telemedicine facility faced a major glitch from October 2010 to January 2011 when the satellite signals were down.</p>.<p>In February 2011, Hassan, Shikaripur and Dharwad hospitals were connected with the network. <br /><br />However, the connection with Hassan and Shikaripur hospitals was lost in June that year. The obstacle was overcome by providing broadband connection.<br /><br />At the CME programme, doctors from various private hospitals shared their telemedicine expertise in different specialties and the challenges they faced in its implementation. <br />M Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said despite having the technology to provide best treatment to patients from rural areas, the facility was largely being underused.<br /></p>
