Narayanpet district in association with the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has launched a pilot project ‘T- Consult - a Rural Tele-Medicine project’ from Makthal mandal to enable people living in rural and remote areas with no access to doctors - to seek medical check-ups and consultations.
As many as 62 doctors from various fields of specialisation, join together to provide free consultation services to the rural poor. In the first phase, the project will be launched in 39 villages of Makthal mandal, making it the first mandal in the country to have 100% access to tele-medicine.
39 gram panchayats
Narayanpet District Collector Hari Chandana told The Hindu that under the project all the 39 gram panchayat offices in the mandal will have facilities to offer telemedicine services and consultation.
Citizens can book appointments with doctors of their choice and speciality through tele-consult facility led by panchayat-level officers. Doctors will interact with patients and also provide prescription which can be had in hard copy format, she explained.
In the next phase, the effort will be to offer citizens, direct interaction through their smart phones, she said.
Role of AYUSH doctors
The T-Consult was formally launched by Tridandi China Jeeyar Swamy from JIMS institute, whose AYUSH doctors made important contribution to the project. He offered free consultation and medicines from JIMS AYUSH College for the district.
Ms. Hari Chandana said the tele-consultation project would assume significance in view of the current lockdown and restrictions on movement.
The TITA team along with the district medical officers of Narayanpet led by the Collector had undergone training as the nodal officers through tele-conference for this tele-medicine project.
TITA partners
TITA global president Sundeep Kumar Makthala said the tele-medicine project is part of the efforts of the district administration to offer quality and free medical care to the rural people. TITA has partnered with Digithon and Klinikals for the required technology for the project.
As part of this, various medical specialists will list out the time slots during which they will be available for tele-consultation and people will seek an appointment online.
Following the tele-consultation, the prescription will also be sent to the patients online.
The panchayat secretary, who will be the nodal officer for the project, will coordinate the required video-connect.
To be expanded
After Narayanpet, efforts will be made to extend to other areas.
TITA through its Digithon Online Clinic had recently hosted a tele-consultation facility for NRIs stranded in Italy, France, Netherlands and other places on COVID-19. Now, the same platform is being extended to rural areas, Mr. Sundeep Kumar said.
