"Disease is a global concern. So why is health care one of the last to computerise?"
Anand Parthasarathy indicates in this piece for The Hindu that in India (and worldwide), "the hospital sector has been one of the laggards when it comes to embracing Information Technology" (IT). One official quoted here, who concentrates on the medical electronics field for Sun Microsystems in Singapore, estimates that less than 2.2% of a typical hospital budget is spent on IT.

Parthasarathy argues, however, that there is a movement toward increased integration of IT into the hospital environment. For example, Sunil Shroff, head of Urology at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai, established the Medical Computer Society of India in 1997 based on his observation of a "digital divide" between IT personnel (who may not have much knowledge at all about the medical field) and the healthcare sector.

To strategise about possible solutions to this divide and to report on progress being made, this networking organisation recently held the 3rd International Conference of Medical Informatics and Telemedicine in Bangalore to discuss developments like Hospital Information Systems (HIS) and Internet-enabled medicare. Case studies shared at this December 2004 "Meditel" conference indicate that Indian hospitals - large and small, public and private - are increasingly using their IT budgets to create patient-friendly interfaces and other new ways to harness IT. For example, the Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi joined hands with ISRO to reach the benefits of healthcare via telemedicine to the remote islands of Lakshadweep and the farther corners of Chattisgarh. And "A.U. Jai Ganesh of Prashanthi Nilayam held out the exciting - and as yet nascent - technologies of 'M-health' - healthcare through mobiles."

With so much personal information in digital form, concerns about security are inevitable, says Parthasarathy. He notes that the Central Ministry of IT has created a sourcebook to work through such concerns: "A Proposed Framework for IT Infrastructure for Healthcare in India."

Article forwarded to the bytesforall_readers listserv on March 4 2005 (click here to access the archives).