Speciality care to Rural Hospitals soon

CUTTACK: When MV Narsu Bai (75) was brought to SCB Medical here with an open bleeding ulcer on the neck and diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the sky came down on her family members. Not only the thought of impending death bogged them down but more concerned they were about taking her to a speciality hospital outside the State and the expenses therein. However, she did not have to venture out and was treated successfully at the SCB medical, thanks to telemedicine. Doctors at the SCB Medical held teleconsultations with endocrine surgery experts of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow, and drew a joint treatment protocol. After surgery, Narsu Bai was sent to Lucknow for radioiodine treatment. Thereafter, she has been receiving follow-up treatment through teleconsultation at the SCB Medical and today is fully cured of the cancer. Like Narsu Bai, help is at hand for thousands of patients requiring consultation for critical diseases, treatment and follow-up at tertiary hospitals in the State and outside. Patients across all the districts of the State would soon have telemedicine facilities at their doorstep. The Orissa Telemedicine Network (OTN) Phase-III is all set to go live in 22 districts of the State by December, establishing coverage for people across  the State. The ` 5.08 crore project funded by NRHM and implemented by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, was rolled out in May last year to connect district headquarters hospitals with the three medical college and hospitals and upwards. The communication platform is being provided by BSNL to link all the 25 telemedicine nodes through MPLS-VDN connectivity. Each district-level Remote Telemedicine Centre (RTC) will have stable connectivity with upload and download speed up to 512 kbps and each medical college-level Telemedicine Referral Centre (TRC) will have speeds up to 2 MBPS with unlimited data volume. “With the district hospitals connected under OTN, patients will no longer have to come to the referral medical College and hospitals. Doctors of the district headquarters hospital can hold teleconsultation with experts of the referral centres and treat cases. Follow-up services will also be provided under OTN. As a result, the patient load in medical college and hospitals will be reduced substantially while saving money and unnecessary troubles for poor patients from distant rural areas,” Nodal officer of OTN and Head of Experimental Surgery of SCB Medical, Prof BN Mohanty said. Under the OTN Phase II, six district headquarter hospitals of Koraput, Bhawanipatna, Sundargarh, Baripada, Rayagada and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar have already been availing of consultation services from the SCB Medical.The SCB Medical has been connected to SGPIGIMS, Lucknow, AIIMS in New Delhi and PGIMER, Chandigarh, along with MKCG Medical, Berhampur and VSS Medical, Burla.The State telemedicine network by November  has benefited 2,541 patients and 1,694 difficult medical topics have been discussed, Prof Mohanty said.