Expert medical counselling through telemedicine for GTA area

KalimNews: An opportunity is provided for Doctors and sick and ailing people of the region of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) seeking medical counselling and help. Counselling through telephonic and electronic media like email popularly known as telemedicine will be provided to the concerned persons by expert Doctors of Kolkata like Dr. M.K.De. 
It is aimed at helping Doctors practicising in remote areas.

Telemedicine means use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. 
Telemedicine can play a vital role in remote places of GTA area as transportation is not only difficult but also very expensive. Further, number of medical graduates are few in number. In such a situation, Doctors can avail further opinion through telemedicine. 
Telemedicine can be divided into three main categories: store-and-forward, remote monitoring and (real-time) interactive services.

Store-and-forward telemedicine involves acquiring medical data (like clinical history, medical images, reports etc.) and then transmitting this data to a doctor or medical specialist at a convenient time for assessment offline. It does not require the presence of both parties at the same time. 

A properly structured medical record preferably in electronic form should be a component of this transfer. 
A key difference between traditional in-person patient meetings and telemedicine is the omission of an actual physical examination and history. The 'store-and-forward' process requires the clinician to rely on history report and audio/video information in lieu of a physical examination.

At present, working on store and forward method of telemedicine is practiced as it is very simple requires only internet and telephone connection. Remote monitoring and real time interactive service is complicated and requires costly devices at both ends.

Through telemedicine, only ‘medical opinion’ is provided. Actual diagnosis and treatment have to be done locally, for which the opinion may be helpful.