Deploying a Rural Wireless Telemedicine System: Experiences in Sustainability

Author

Surana, Sonesh ; Patra, Rabin ; Nedevschi, Sergiu ; Brewer, Eric

Author_Institution

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA

Volume

41

Issue

6

fYear

2008

fDate

6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

48

Lastpage

56

Abstract

A primary concern for projects supported by aid programs is sustainability. Although there is a growing belief that information and communication technologies (ICT) can significantly impact development, in practice creating sustainable ICT projects is extremely difficult. A typical project consists of a pilot stage that aims to demonstrate the basic goals, followed by a deployment stage that aims for both scale and sustainability. A novel ICT project in rural India uses long-distance Wi-Fi networking to enable high-quality videoconferencing between eye hospitals and remote village clinics. The project highlights the importance of sustainability as a first-class goal for systems research.

Keywords

health care; teleconferencing; telemedicine; video communication; wireless LAN; ICT; Wi-Fi networking; eye hospital; information and communication technology; remote village clinics; rural India; sustainability; videoconferencing; wireless telemedicine system; Communications technology; Costs; Equipment failure; Hospitals; Maintenance; Performance evaluation; Profitability; Teleconferencing; Telemedicine; Vacuum systems; information and communication technologies; technology for development;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MC.2008.184

Filename

4548173