With daily improvement in the medical field, urban society is enjoying a healthy life, but for people in rural and remote areas even basic care is not sufficiently available. So that the rural masses can enjoy the advances in the field of medicine, "Telemedicine" can be used. The current form of telemedicine does not fit the Indian scenario because of the factors described.
For telemedicine to be suitable for Indian conditions, we designed an efficient, low-cost prototype system using fixed wireless Internet. In our system, we connect the remote or rural areas with the nearest well-established hospital via the fixed wireless Internet. In the rural center, a less qualified medical assistant can work with patients through the guidance given by the efficient physician who guides him through the fixed wireless Internet.
The basic structure of our telemedicine is achieved through a digital video camera and VoIP enabled phones, which are compatible with the fixed wireless Internet. For the efficient operation of the fixed wireless Internet system, the design criteria of the transceiver are of utmost importance. Using the fixed wireless Internet as a bridge system solves the problem of bandwidth requirements and profitability. With these remote consultations of the Telemedicine system, monitoring is possible. Depending on the infrastructure and staff available in the rural center, telesurgery can become a reality.
Recently, the United Nations Human Development Report 2000 was published, which has praised India's human rights efforts. In the same report, it has also been stated that the country's rural health profile is worrying. When researchers are creating the map of chromosomes, doctors in the United States with biochip, many people, from our rural India die due to lack of adequate medical services.
In addition to the lack of will on the part of practitioners, the scarcity of health-related data is a major disadvantage in the provision of medical facilities in a developing country such as ours, which has population surcharges and financial constraints. On the other hand India is experiencing a demographic transition and the age groups of the elderly are growing faster than the younger age groups.
Today India has more than 70 million elderly people. Approximately 7% of the indigenous population is over 60 years of age. 75% of these elderly people live in rural areas and 20% are disabled in different grades. The average life expectancy of a person born today is about 62 years. But the sad realities in India show that the greater the longevity, the greater the chances of disability and fragility.
The fact that the majority of government-sponsored nursing homes are located in urban areas clearly demonstrates that rural elders do not receive adequate care. It is also difficult to take them to efficient urban hospitals because of our 'kachha' roads.