Establishing Tele–Ophthalmology Centers in the North Eastern India

摘要

Introduction: Even for a simple problem, a person in a rural or far flung has added costs of travel, stay and hospitalization etc. as well as the cost of needing accomanying persons to go to the city. There are lost earnings by the patients and also the caregivers. Eye problems, notably cataract is by far, commoner in the rural population as they are more exposed to the sun. Previously, mass treatment was attempted in eye surgery camps which lead to unacceptable complications due to problems of sterility as well as little follow up. An alternative being offered is to do the surgery in a proper hospital but allow pre and post surgery care at a more peripheral location aided by Telemedicine. SATHI, short for Society for Adminsitration of Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics is a Not-For-Profit organization which does consultancy and implementation of telemedicine projects. The project is funded by has been awarded to them under the National Program for Control of Blindness (NPCB). This project is geared to effectively utilizing technology initiatives to perform the outreach program with the aim of improving access to quality health care programs in the rural areas of the state. The Tele-ophthalmology Centres are being setup in the State of Mizoram currently, but atempts are being made to expand to other hill states of North eastern India. Project objectives The primary objective is to deliver Preventive and Primary Eye care to rural citizens in the state so that there is: a. An effective system for delivery of eye care b. Cost effective & efficient delivery of eye care services c. Easy access to eye care services d. Focus on Health care and sensitization about eye care among rural citizens Project operations and components a. The key resource is the link worker who maps the villages under each block and encourages citizens to visit the centers b. The Ophthalmic Assistant (OA) uploads data into the database. c. The doctor creates a prescription and instructs the OA on the next steps d. Based on the findings, the doctor can then advise on how to provide treatment whether at the secondary or tertiary hospital e. Patient undergoes treatment and the patient database is updated. f. These centres will also provide spectacles; prescription medicines and routine follow up. g. Operating Doctor is regularly updated on the progress h. Data can be reviewed for audit. Unlike previous projects, SATHI will own the project for three years. We are also attempting to introduce other telehealth, general health as well as IT components as a value addition. This will put the installed systems and training to better use and help to make it sustainable.