Dr. Rajesh Balkrishna from Pune has shown how one technology can be harnessed to propagate another. In a unique endeavour he has used the Internet to share his expertise in Assisted Reproduction techniques with doctors in smaller towns. Recently his efforts bore fruit when two women from Vai and Bhuinj successfully conceived through Internet-based treatment.
Dr. Balkrishna started working on the concept 10 months back and now he has formed a network of around 45 doctors located in 15 places in the radius of 300 kilometers from Pune, like Vai, Baramati, Satara, Phaltan, Manchar, and Sangli amongst others.
Explaining his method, he told this correspondent that in the test tube baby procedure the ovum pick-up and embryo transfer is the most critical and important step and requires a day or two at the IVF centre. However it requires one month's treatment and monitoring of the lady before the embryo transfer is done. For this the patient generally has to stay at the city where the IVF center is located for one month, leaving behind her home, job and family. It requires a lot of money and also the time and proves very disruptive for the patient.
This is overcome with the help of Internet. "The procedure required before the ovum pick-up and embryo transfer could be done by the gynecologist in the smaller towns as they have the infrastructure available for down regulation and stimulation," he clarified.
The reports are monitored by him on the Internet everyday and he suggests the course of action to the gynecologist whenever necessary. Dr. Balkrishna started working on the concept 10 months back and now he has formed a network of around 45 doctors located in 15 places in the radius of 300 kilometers from Pune, like Vai, Baramati, Satara, Phaltan, Manchar, and Sangli amongst others.
He lamented that sub-fertility is an unfortunately common problem affecting a large number of distressed couples. Though Assisted Reproductive Technologies, (ART), have revolutionized the management of the infertile couple, the high cost of the setup and requirement of immense technical resources has led to selective concentration of these facilities in large urban areas.
"There has unfortunately been little effort to disseminate the technology to a wider area and patients need to travel great distances, stay away from home and work for extended periods, and most importantly, need to cope with unfamiliar medical and paramedical personnel and centers," opined he.
"Through www.oosite.net, a registered local consultant assumes full control of the entire down-regulation, stimulation and post transfer protocol in the ART program. The site is an effort to bridge the gap between the patient and her local consultant on the one hand and an ultra modern urban ART center on the other," he said.
With Oosite's simple desktop program and an internet connection, local consultants can manage, at their own clinic, the ART protocols for their own patients while maintaining complete confidentiality and security. The protocol sheet can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet via a secure login process.
The couple needs to report to the IVF center only for the ovum pick-up and embryo transfer, at the predetermined time, where Oosite's representatives will assist them through the entire process. Post transfer, the patient returns to the local consultant for further management.