RNA Diagnostics

The successful e-Choupal model of ITC has provided impetus to an experiment in healthcare — a model to provide quality medical facilities to the country’s rural heartland.

The Hyderabad-based CARE Group of Hospitals has launched a pilot project in Maharashtra in collaboration with ITC to test this model. The sops, offered in the recent Budget for setting up hospitals in tier II and III cities, such as a five-year tax holiday and insurance schemes are expected to prove beneficial.

The first pilot has been launched in Nagpur, where a 100-bed multi-speciality hospital has been established. This hub is electronically linked to three smaller medical centres in Yavatmal, Wardha and Amaravati. Nearly, 400 villages with a million population are brought into the network. Basically, CARE Hospitals is integrating its primary healthcare delivery model with the e-choupal network.

Typically, one e-Choupal caters to three-four villages. A choupalSagar comprises 40 such e-Choupals.CARE Hospitals has also roped in corporates to develop ’smart devices’ to capture basic health information in electronic format, while leveraging the additional bandwidth available with the e-Choupals, according to Dr N. Krishna Reddy, Managing Director of the Group.

The editorial by Edworthy shows the dangers of external commentary on what is most useful for developing countries.¹ How can we measure the comparative impact of teleconsultation in Uzbekistan or Cambodia with teleconsultation in snowbound northern Canada, telemetry in Norway supporting elderly people at home, or teleradiology avoiding long painful journeys in remote parts of the British Isles? What values do we use? economic, social, quality adjusted life years, consumer feedback, political position, or provider satisfaction?