Information technology has revolutionized our lives in many ways, from making communication with our loved ones easier, to creating entire new economies based on outsourced communications. And now, information technology is being used in an area that has the potential to affect many more people in a positive way, one that goes beyond communication and economy. Telemedicine in Nepal has the potential to save lives of hundreds of people who do not have access to medical services. Because of Nepal’s difficult geography, it has always been difficult to avail people living far from the capital city of even basic services. The country’s hilly and mountainous terrain, with a less than desirable coverage of roads, makes land transportation difficult. As a result, many other services which require land transportation are absent in rural parts of Nepal. Among them are electricity, education, water, and health. Lack of health services has posed great inconvenience to rural populace, putting many lives in danger, for instance when they cannot traverse the distance to the nearest health center on time. But the advent of telemedicine promises to solve at least a part of their problems. [break]
Telemedicine may not be as valuable in easy-to-access areas where hospitals or medical centers are just a few hours by land. But in Nepal, for many rural residents the medical centers are more than a day’s walk away, and the walk becomes even more arduous when a sick person has to be carried all the way. In this case, the use of photo sharing and video conferencing has immense utility and can greatly reduce the patient and caretakers’ inconvenience. Consultant doctors of Patan Hospital have started providing this service, connecting to 30 hospitals in remote areas. Doctors in remote parts can connect with Patan Hospital doctors and ask for a second opinion when they are unsure about a case. It has made the process of diagnosis much easier for doctors, and has already helped more than 4,500 patients. Of course, if a patient is very sick, the doctors recommend taking the person to a nearby hospital. But if that cannot be achieved, the doctors can easily prescribe medicines or procedures through the internet, and ensure that needy patients receive fast and convenient services.
The more ideas are exchanged and allowed to flow, the more there are discoveries, inventions and innovations. This laudable initiative by Patan Hospital is one such opening up of communication that is bound to lead to many new avenues. The government should do all it can to help these services along, which could one day be a vital and indispensible component of Nepali health care system. Good internet service is of the utmost importance to this service, because the entire telemedicine infrastructure is based on communication through internet. It is now up to the government to provide Patan Hospital as well as hospitals outside the valley with fast and efficient internet to ensure that telemedicine service is uninterrupted and reliable. It is our earnest wish that Patan Hospital can fulfill its ambition of expanding the service to more districts so that more and more Nepalis benefit from quality healthcare, something they have been denied for a long time.
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