Telemedicine In Pakistan: A Story From American Press
There are many other telemedicine projects and companies in Pakistan. Few of them get coverage outside Pakistan. I found this story, which appeared at MarketWatch and other sites, to be interesting, though it reads a bit like marketing for IBM and Wateen. In an upcoming post I will share related work being carried out by Pakistani researchers.
Part of the funding came from the U.S. Department of State under the U.S. Government’s Digital Freedom Initiative, which “seeks to encourage the spread of technology to the developing world.”
A 5-year-old boy in Pakistan no longer has to suffer without treatment of an irritating skin rash thanks to care from a doctor in a city 110 miles from his rural village.
The high-tech telemedicine system that made the treatment possible was implemented with the leadership of a company on the other side of the world: Armonk-based IBM Corp.
IBM was tapped by the State Department to lead a public-private partnership that includes Wateen Telecom, Motorola Inc., Medweb Inc., the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Defense Department Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center and the Pakistani government.
The telemedicine system links the “hub” of Holy Family Hospital in the city of Rawalpindi, Punjab province, with the “spoke” of District Headquarters Hospital in Attock, which has limited resources to treat thousands of surrounding villagers.
Doctors in Rawalpindi, armed with personal computers and videoconferencing equipment, “see” patients remotely and confer with their counterparts at the district hospital.
Medical records and information, including digital photos of skin lesions, for example, are shared via a wireless network provided by Motorola and Wateen Telecom and navigated with Medweb software.
Dr. Sadia Rafiq, the IBM medical consultant for the Pakistan Telemedicine Project, said just 16 primary-care doctors work in Attock while there is a need for 64.
There are no radiologists, pathologists, dermatologists or many other specialists. If a villager needs additional care, he or she often cannot afford the trip to the larger hospital in Rawalpindi.
As a result, Rafiq said, ailments that aren’t emergencies are ignored. Since the telemedicine project became active this summer, patients have come in with complaints that had been ignored, including a goiter that was untreated for 30 years.
“The simple diseases that are not treated before can now be treated,” she said.
Rafiq said that the marginally trained doctors at the district hospital weren’t skilled enough to diagnose many problems and that patients sometimes hesitated to come in for treatment at all.
“You could see the misery on their faces,” she said.
While the upper-middle class can afford to visit a private clinic, most people can’t afford to travel to Rawalpindi and pay up to 1,000 rupees for an ultrasound, for example, as many earn about 4,000 a month.
Pakistan has almost 179 million people. But more than 75 percent live in remote villages with access to fewer than 15 percent of all hospital beds in the country.
“We basically have very poor people,” she said. “They don’t have money for their bread and butter. They are living in remote areas.”
The telemedicine system gives them access to care without traveling and incurring big costs.
“They can stay with their families, in their own environment,” she said. “They don’t have to spend a lot of money, they don’t have to wait in a queue.”
In Pakistan, where IBM employs about 350 people, the company created a team of three people to implement the telemedicine solution with partners.
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Muhammad Younas
Address: House # 10, Street # 4, Siddiquia Road Gulgasht
Colony Multan
Cell: 923007300404, 923334615061
Home: 92616222508
Objective:
To work within a dynamic and progressive organization where enthusiasm, dedication
And the ability to manage tasks effectively is prerequisite in driving the organization forward.
· Electro Power & Telecom (Since September 2007 to Dated)
· Currently I am working as a Site Engineer in Electro Power & Telecom at Telenor/NSN/TAW Pakistan Project.
· Responsibilities
· TELENOR Project Phase-IV & Phase-V new BTS rollout sites with NOKIA as well as Expansion sites
(Lahore, Central-1)
· Manage all issue about whole site.
· Lead the Whole team & Guide them in the all fields of TI.
· Coordinate with the Nokia for Sites issue.
o TELENOR Project Phase-IV & V with NOKIA (Lahore, North Region)
§ Installation of Ultra Site Outdoor Edge BTS Cabinet & Power One Cabinet
§ Commissioning & Testing of Ultra Site Outdoor EDGE BTS
ü Integration of Ultra site EDGE (OUTDOOR) and metro site.
§ Installation, Commissioning & Integration of CommScope, Precision & Andrew Transmission equipment
§ Installation of Katherine RBS Antenna’s
§ External & Internal BTS Alarms definition, testing & monitoring
§ Installation & commissioning of FIU 19 &FIU 19E Unit.
§ Perform commissioning, traffic management configuration, mapping of cross-connections in Nokia BTS Hub Manager for Nokia Flexi-hopper radios outdoor unit of different frequencies (e.g. 18, 23, and 38GHz) utilizing FXCRRI indoor unit.
§ Mapping of cross connection of new site and also working on E1 grooming and un-grooming of new site and expansions of ultra site.
§ Installation of Power Safe & North Star Battery Backup System & take Battery test Graphs
§ Barcode Scanning
o Software Tools Used
§ Nokia Ultra Site BTS Manager, HW Configuration & BTS Hub Manager
§ Nokia Hopper Manager
§ Bird Site Antenna Tester Software Tools
§ PowCom (Power One Cabinet Configuration)
§ Site Documentation
o Academic Qualification:
· DAE (Electronics). Multan Swedish Institute Of Technology Multan
Major: Electronics
Major Subjects:
· Data Communication & Networking (DCN), Error Correction Techniques, Transform Techniques, Digital signal processing, Signal and Systems, Digital Communication, Digital Logic Design, Microprocessor Interface, Operating Systems, Software Applications, System Analysis and Design, Numerical Analysis, Computer System Architecture (CSA),
· Study & Work on Combinational & Sequential Circuits.
· Work on Adders (Carry Look Ahead Adder & Ripple Carry Adder)
· Designing of Latches and Flip-Flops.
· Counter Designing. Register Banks. Memory Bank. Serializer. Pattern Detectors and FIFO.
Digital Logic Design:
· Half & Full Adder & Sub tractor. Code Conversion.
· Encoder, De coder, Multiplexer & De Multiplexer.
· Latches & Flip-Flop Operation.
· Synchronous and Asynchronous Counter.
· Memory interfacing through computer.
Computer Skills:
· Operating System MS Windows98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
· Tools MS Office, Symphony Sonata,
· Internet E-Mail, Browsing, Search and Download
Personal Skills:
· Team Player
· Very Good Communication Skills
Extra activities:
· Net Browsing
· Study literature
· Playing games
Personal Information:
Muhammad Younas
S/O Mulazim Hussain
Date of Birth: 05 Feb 1982
NIC # 36302-0509886-9
Place of Domicile: Multan
Nationality: Pakistani
Religion: Islam
Language: Urdu, English
Reference: Can be furnished upon Demand
Ahsan – glad that this article inspired you. There’s no doubt in my mind that technology will make medical service much better. However as Quli said the current solutions are far from satisfactory. On the flip side, telemedicine can be a life saver for those who have no other alternative. We will see more and more innovation in this area.
@Ravi – All medical practices must be brought under a LAW. Since our lawmakers are generally too busy trying to make more money, I’m not optimistic here. But nonetheless, anything that does not have a law backing it up can and will be misused. And yes, we are a nation of sticks and carrots rarely work.
Getting medical advise should not be about gambling on ones life, and that is my fear for such a service. Will a bad or an incompetent doctor go scott free if they are the direct cause of harm or death to a patient? Probably so, as there is no relevant law on the advise being offered even if it causes death and it will only add to the societies woes of feeling unsafe.
Like whats been said over and over again, we’re a country where even the chief justice is looking for justice!
Quli
Perhaps you are right. How about suggestions on what can be done keeping in mind the current situation of a country like Pakistan? Are you being fare in comparing the US and Pakistan at all? A mother who can possible call a tele-doctor from her phone and at least get to know if the suatuation may be too serious to just be cured over the phone, is being well served according to me.
Do you mean to say that the effort should be severed rather than improved? your statement has no advice, considering the kind of insight you seem to have on the topic. I’m just trying to find out, with anyone’s help if there is a better way? Is it even possible?
Thank you!
Hello,
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Anyone with a background in internet technology and/or telehealthy medicine is invited to contact us for further information about this telecare investment opportunity in a startup USA company.
Thank you,
peter@mauiagewave,com
Teledoctor is a bad bad initiative in my opinion. Its great from the 30,000 feet view, and @Ahsan, no offense, but its very easy for you and others like you to give advise to illiterates when in fact it may be determental to their health.
In the US there are stringent checks on doctors, and not one doctor dare give any medical advise over the phone for fear of being wrong. Yes, the suing sometimes goes overboard and this impacts their professional insurance and so on.
But in Pakistan where the average doctor is no better than a half qualified nurse in a developed nation (let the flaming begin!), I fear how illiterates in this country will be taken on a ride. It reminds me of the saying, best way to eliminate poverty is to kill the poor. Ah well, we’re about to make Pakistan the organ selling capital of the world soon, so this sounds like a walk in the park.
Salam
I have been reading your blog on and off & i find your posts to be very informative.If you remember, i was the one who notified you about telenor teledoctor service at,
http://telecompk.net/2008/04/16/telenor-teledoctor-consumers-be-aware/
To cut short i am a doctor whose house job is almost near to completion.I actually want to explore new arenas such as telemedicine,nanotechnology etc etc but i was really led down as there are no opportunities for such fields in Pakistan.But now this article has really pumped adrenaline in me and now it is you who can guide me to it.
I am also a hardcore geek with a vast variety of hardware and software knowledge.As a result i want such a field which can blend both medicine and technology.
Hoping for your respone at
(mutanthuman)at(gmail)dot(com)
Thanks.