Profile: Telemedicine: India: Telemedicine at Amrita (AIMS)
“Where there is love, distance doesn’t matter.” —Amma
In January 2003, the Amrita Telemedicine facility was inaugurated from Kavaratti on the Lakshadweep Islands located 220 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala. AIMS is the first institution in Kerala to begin using telemedicine to treat patients in remote places in India, such as the Lakshadweep Islands, Port Blair on the Andaman Islands and Leh, Ladakh, thereby vastly improving the quality of healthcare for the local populations.
Telemedicine is a method by which specialist doctors can examine, investigate, monitor and treat patients in remote areas through satellite video conferencing. AIMS’ telemedcine programme is made possible through its link with an ISRO [Indian Satellite Research Organisation] satellite. Telemedicine is used to transmit patients’ medical images, records, output from medical devices and live two-way audio and video. With the help of these, specialist doctors can advise, online, the doctors or paramedics at the patient’s end on medical care, or even guide the doctor during a surgery.
