Rajesh Shah, a city-based homoeopath, surfs the net daily. He updates the nine sites he has posted on the world wide web on topics ranging from bronchitis to backache, and answers queries emailed to him from across the world. But Dr. Shah is nore than a web doctor. He's created an e-medicine data base for homoeopathy.

Thanks to IT revolution, e-doctor phenomenon is on the rise
- by Roli Srivastava and Malathy Iyer
The Times of India, Mumbai

MUMBAI: Rajesh Shah, a city-based homoeopath, surfs the net daily. He updates the nine sites he has posted on the world wide web on topics ranging from bronchitis to backache, and answers queries emailed to him from across the world. But Dr. Shah is nore than a web doctor. He's created an e-medicine data base for homoeopathy.

"I have gathered addresses of homoeopaths across the world. Whenever a person consults me over the net, I make it a point to e-mail him the address of the homoeopath nearest to him be it in Germany, New zealand or the U.S," he says. "The network thus helps the patient concerned even while promoting homoeopathy."

Dr. Shah's e-homoeopathy network is only one of the many high-tech initiatives undertaken by individual medical practitioners to reach out to patient. Click on health portals or contact phone-based telemedicine networks and you are sure to find your neighbourhood specialist dispensing prescription on interpreting electro cardiograms.

Rohini Chowgule is another tech-savvy doctor. A pulmonary physician practising with Bombay Hospital, she is in the process of creating a 'virtual hospital' in Mumbai. Her web-based medical second opinion centre, Chowgule Mediconsult, will send digitised a medical reports of patients seeking a second opinion to its panel of specialist from medical centres such as Massachusetts General Hospotal and the Harvard Medical School.

From Jay Shah's experience, it's obvious that that the number of tech doctors is on rise. He is director with a helth portal that has 25 doctors on its advisory panel. " When we advertised, we had applications pouring in from doctors from across the country," says Mr. Shah, whose portal received 300 to 350 queries on an average every month.

The e-doctor phenomenon is an off-shoot of the information technology revolution, say doctors like fertility experts Aniruddha Malpani and Rajesh Shah. "As patiens become more educated, they expect more information from their doctors," says Dr. Malpani, who has many overseas patiens whom he has met only once and that too after a series of e-consultations.

There is no arguing the fact that e-medicine is still in a fledgling state in India-some doctors have just begun computerising their data bases, a few have reached the stage of dispensing advice via e-mail, and a few have their own websites." Although the progress to a full-blown e-medicine set-up is slow, there is no turning back," says Dr. Rajesh Shah.

Indeed, telemedicine exterts have predicted that some day in the not-too-distant futrure, the doctors will examine his patients in a virtual out patients department set up with the help of super computers. Hospitals, specialists, neighbourhood doctors and pathology laboratories will be connected with each other, allowing the patient to sign up online for check ups tests or advice.

But it is not only the patients who will benefit from e-medicine. Doctors, too will find it profitable, says Dr. Chowgule." There are times when doctors in the process of a diagnosis reach a dead-end. When he discusses the same with a specialist from a prestigious medical centre, it would not only help the patient but also the doctor," she says.

There are other benefits of connectivity and e-connected doctor has well maintained data and is easily accessible to his patients and other specialist. A case in point is the breakthrough made by doctors of rajkot Civil Hospital and U.N Mehta Cardiology and Research Centre in 1999, with the help of Online telemedicine Research Institute, which has 60 telemedicine centres in Gujrat. The Rajkot doctors carried out an operation with instructions given by specialists in Ahmedabad monitoring the patient's condition through a video-conferencing facitily. However, for the time being, e-medicine remains out of touch of the common man "An average middle-class person cannot avail such facilities. Even sending as e-mail is not simple for an average person and it would take another five years for doctor to become e-friendly," points out Dr Arun Bal of Association for consumer Action of Safely and Health.

But the revolution is on, with both government and corporate hospitals keeping step with information technology. For instance, the telemedicne centers connecting cities and remote villages in India and abroad, on January 8 inaugurated a new telemedicine center at port Blair in the Andaman Nicobar Islands.

On the same day, French satellite telecom major Eutelsat SA annouced that it would undertake a fesibility study to set up a telemedicine mart in India. In June 2001, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, announced a joint venture with hospitals in Delhi, Jaipur and Calcutta. The common man, it seems, will be connected with his docor sooner than later.(This is sthe second report in a two-part series)

Article Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Doctors-knit-a-virtual-Net/articleshow/1019831509.cms

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