TELEMEDICINE PROGRAMME IN RURAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM OF INDIA

Dr. M. Arivanandan

Volume : VI, Issue : III, March - 2016

TELEMEDICINE PROGRAMME IN RURAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM OF INDIA

Dr. M. Arivanandan

Abstract :

The Indian sub–continent has a diversified landmass and huge population size. There are 70% of people living in rural and tribal areas with minimum health care facilities The health care facilities in rural areas have provided by government and private sectors. The government has provided the facilities based on three tier system i.e. Sub centre, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres. The coverage population size of these centers differed to plain and hilly areas. The fastest development and spared of new diseases, population growth, location of the rural and tribal settlements, providing quality treatment to all the people is major challenging task for the government. With the advancement of medical sciences and electronic sciences and computer based internet services, presently the telemedicine programme is one of the great initiatives in the rural health care system. It has good scope in providing medical care to the people living in the rural and tribal areas. The Indian Space Research Organisation has initiated the telemedicine programme. Currently, it is in project mode and run through public and private partnership ventures. Though it is one of the useful initiatives, it has some setbacks from the technology providers as well the community. Therefore this paper discusses the status of the rural health care system in general and role of the telemedicine programme in specific in focus of India.