Applicability of telemedicine in Sri Lanka cardiac diagnosis as a case study

Abstract

Access to reasonable health care throughout the country is very essential. It can be seen not only in Sri Lanka even in the developed world normally a satisfactory access to health care is mainly concentrated to the urban areas. Normally those who are living in the rural remote area are the poor,/ who do not have sufficient income for enjoying the urban life. Therefore it is very essential for the development of the county to provide the requirements of health care for those who are unable to access it. The aim of this study was to identify the possibility of applying the fast developing telemedicine application in the world to fill the gap of insufficient access to health care by the remote poor. The technology is available in the world and continues to be popular. However, there are no positive signs of successful implementation in Sri Lanka. 1 have defined the applicability with four parameters in the Sri Lankan contcxt, as; (1) Sufficient areas of clinical applications, (2) positive consent from the Clinical Consultants, (3) availability of the Technology, (4) benefits higher than the cost of implementation. With the statistic data from the health care institutions and through the interviews, I have assessed the application areas. The consent of the consultant was accessed through a questionnaire targeting the applicability for cardiac diagnosis. The main technical barrier is the high cost of access to broadband data transmission and the availability of the same throughout the country. Most difficult and not yet definitely proven in the world is the economy of the application of this nature. It was identified the complexity of devising a system for the evaluation of the real benefits and cost of telemedicine. However, as the final out come I could identify the benefits and cost factors to be considered for the evaluation before deciding to implement an ICT solution for Sri Lanka. The acceptances of these factors were verified with a questionnaire. It could found that a health tclcmctric system has been already in place in the country as a pilot project, which has been donated by WHO. It could identify that this is too not put into the expected utilization due the required other recourses arc not available. Therefore, best solutions is the first put this pilot project in to maximum utilization after removing the barriers for the success and evaluate the benefits and effectiveness before deciding further projects. Our neighbouring country India is presently using telemedicine extensively in the country and we can learn a lot on the feasibility of application of the same in Sri Lanka.