Telemedicine in India: Initiatives and vision

The advances in medical science and biomedical engineering on one side and information and communication technology (ICT) on the other are offering wide opportunities for improved health care. Despite making great strides in overall development and uplifting of our largely rural-based and essentially economically challenged sections of the society, providing proper and desirable levels of health care to them still remains an unfulfilled dream. Telemedicine will contribute to the availability of quality health care to those in need irrespective of socio economic and geographical disparities and it should be available for the benefit of all people located in rural, remote and inaccessible places, and to further enhance its end-to-end capability. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India has been working hard to develop a National Policy on telemedicine and e health which will benefit all the stake holders and facilitate promotion of telemedicine and integration of this technology in prevailing health system to develop electronic healthcare delivery system and tele-education in health science. However, this Herculean task needs more time to complete and bring it under legislation.