Online Medical Technology News : Bhopal : India: The Pioneer : Tele-Medicine project still incomplete

The inordinate delay in the State's ambitious Tele-Medicine project seems to be getting longer as the project is still under process. The project originally was to be made functional by April 2008 onwards at 10 district hospitals, 2 charitable hospitals and 3 medical colleges across the State. The project aims at providing the necessary medical expertise through tele-conferencing at the places, where the services of expert physicians are not available.

The ambitious project of Tele-Medicine was devised by the State Health Department with the technical support from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). In the first phase, Balaghat, Mandla, Sidhi, Shahdol, Shivpurkalan, Jhabua, Mandsore, Khargon, Shajapur, Betul and Trust hospitals Padhar Betul, Yogiraj institute Mandla along with Medical Colleges of Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior.

Madhya Pradesh Council for Science and Technology, which had devised the unique idea, is the nodal agency of this project. Senior MPCST Scientist Rajesh Arya, who is taking care of the project claimed that the necessary infrastructure have been installed at the various centres recently. He also claimed that these centres have started functioning on testing basis.

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Online Medical Technology News : Mumbai : India: DNA: Digital imaging makes storage cheaper for corp hospitals

Digital imaging is fast making life easier for patients and hospitals. Patients may no longer have to carry around images of X-ray, MRI, CT scan, mammograms, ultrasound, EEG and other medical tests every time they head out to see a doctor. Besides, misplacing medical records may not mean additional expenditure on duplicates.
Corporate hospitals across the country are now opening up to a digital imaging technology for storage and easy retrieval of images, thereby saving patients time and effort of carrying their medical records.

Called picture archival and communications system (PACS), the technology helps store images such as MRI, CT scans, X-ray etc in a compressed form in a centralised server connected to all the imaging machines. After a test is done, the image is stored in the centralised hospital server. Whenever a patient visits consultants, the images can be retrieved from this server. Ankur Bharti, the healthcare consultant at management consulting firm Technopak, said, "Doctors can view the patient's images from any room in the hospital."

 

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NOTE : Sneha Diagnostics has been using PACS since it's inception in it's state-of-the art diagnostics centers across remote places in India, with a motto to bring world class medical diagnostics to every corner.

Online Health News : Vijayawada : AP : India: Deccan Chronicle : 30% of TB patients are HIV+ in AP

At least 30 per cent of TB patients in certain areas of the state such as Vijayawada are HIV positive, revealed the TB Alert UK chief executive, Mr Mike Mandelbaum.

Mr Mike also informed, "Around 1.7 million people die of TB every year in the world with majority deaths from India. TB Alert Asia representative Mr Tilak S. Chauhan said, "Anantapur and Adilabad have highest prevalence and according to a study in Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad on Multi Drug Resistant TB, 45 cases have been recorded.

Morever, the treatment for Multi drug Resistant TB is expensive," he added. "It is now the responsibility of health workers to administer the drug to the patients," Dr Nalini Krishnan project director of Reach said.

Online Health News : Nellore : AP : India: Deccan Chronicle : Nellore threatened by jaundice terror

The largest outbreak of jaundice caused by the hepatitis E virus in southern India was reported at Nellore in a joint study conducted by Narayana Medical College, Nellore, in association with Welcome Trust Research Laboratory, Christian Medical College, Vellore.

The study indicates that more than 22,000 patients have been affected by jaundice during the last six months. Exposing the poor quality of water being supplied by the civic body to citizens, the study indicates that most patients were those drinking municipal water.

The study team conducted a house-to-house survey to determine the burden of the disease in society. At least 70 per cent of the patients were male. The percentage of population affected by the outbreak was 5.6 per cent and this is the highest overall attack rate reported till now in India, according to study team members. Dr Lalit Nihal, department of gastroenterology, said "Even though the number of patients reported in the study is 22,000, this is still an underestimation since only Nellore was covered

 

Online Health News : Hyderabad : AP : India: The Hindu : Increase tuberculosis awareness

Get people to treatment early and increase awareness that the disease is completely curable. This is the firm route to eradicate tuberculosis (TB), according to Mr Mike Mandelbaum, Chief Executive, TB Alert, UK.

Though 1.7 million people worldwide die to TB annually and India has the dubious distinction of accounting for 4 lakh of them, TB can be prevented and cured with proper adherence to regimen, he told newspersons here today.

There are also encouraging research studies pointing to development of preventive vaccines, better drugs which can shorten the duration of treatment time from the present (6-8 months) in the future, Mr Mike said.

Participating in the 'Speak up to stop TB' initiative launched here jointly by REACH and the Lilly MDR TB partnership, Mr Mike said though two billion people have the TB bacteria latent, the chances of contracting the commonest lung TB is as low as 10 per cent. He felt that TB should now be referred to more as an 'illness' than a disease as it is easily treatable.

The Lilly MDR TB partnership, a public-private initiative, has mobilised 18 partners in five continents to fight the battle to stop spread of TB. Lilly is donating $135 million.

Dr Ramya Ananthakrishnan, Medical Co-ordinator for REACH, said there was still stigma attached to TB patients in society. This was uncalled for because TB can affect anyone. Also, it can be treated with available drugs and the Government provides them free of cost in India.

Dr Nalini Krishnan, Executive Secretary of REACH (Resource Group for Education & Advocacy for Community Health), a Chennai-based public-private initiative focused on TB control, also announced the launch of a Web site that provides a range of information about TB ( www.media4tb.org).

 

Online News : India PR Wire: Metropolis and Merrygold Health Network to provide Maternal and Child Health Care in UP

Metropolis Health Services will now provide quality testing services to patients of Merrygold Health Network in Uttar Pradesh. UP has the one of highest maternal mortality ratio of 517 per 1, 00,000 live births (SRS 2005- 2006) and Infant Mortality rate of 71 per 1000 live births (SRS 2007). The main cause of this situation is poor antenatal care (44% received ante natal care) and low coverage of institutional delivery (22%) in the State (source: NFHS III).

HLFPPT has committed to develop the Merrygold Health Network with support of Govt. of UP and SIFPSA (State Innovations in Family Planning Services Project Agency) in the entire State. The Merrygold Health Network is an example of public private partnership working on the principles of franchising for development of network across all 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The project will support the Government of UP's and GOI 's efforts in reducing maternal, new born and infant deaths by increasing antenatal care, institutional deliveries and new born care, post natal and family planning services to women in rural and semi urban population.

In the first phase of the project, Metropolis will open one Lab in HLFPPT-owned Hospital and the other lab will be commissioned in a Franchised Hospital. The first Metropolis Laboratory has been commissioned in HLFPPT-owned Merrygold Hospital, Agra. Samples of patients requiring specialized testing will be sent to the referral laboratories of Metropolis Health Services Laboratory through their own effective and efficient systems. The patients will see the reports on the website or can collect the reports from Merrygold hospital.

 

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