Telemedicon 2009, the fifth annual national congress of Telemedicine Society of India (TSI), will be held at Pune, from November 6 to 8, to update the latest developments in the Telehealth segment and to analyse the emerging opportunities and challenges for the Indian telemedicine industry.
This year, the congress has selected the theme 'i health' (individual health) to ponder over the possibilities of all forms of individual health with the help of IT enabled services (ITES). The conference will have live telemedicine sessions, hands-on course, workshops, state-of-the-art lectures, planery sessions, video platform and poster presentations sessions catering to all the aspects related to individual health in telemedicine.
The 'i health' will cover a wide area of telemedicine segment including virtual consultation as well as vital monitoring for chronically ill patients, virtual satellite clinics supported by video conferencing, Telehealth and telecare providing more healthcare services in the home environment and remote areas, health insurance related services, i prescriptions and appointment services to access healthcare services in secondary and tertiary centres.
Individual health is transforming physical structure in IT world, pharma industry, hospitals and clinics, driving the health delivery interface points to become patient centric and introduces the concept of telemedicine and e-health to a wide audience. The conference will discuss and demonstrate practical examples with participation from business houses, IT companies, insurance sector, telecommunication companies, healthcare sector, pharma industry, clinical trials, equipment manufacturers, government and non-government organizations in India, according to the organisers.
"Telehealth is at a cusp in India. It is widely believed that, Telehealth will impact all the facets of healthcare industry, and will be an integral part of the healthcare infrastructure to take healthcare to the masses, thereby, improving the accessibility and affordability for the masses," said Rajendra Pratap Gupta, member, organising committee, Telemedicon 2009.
The theme is to highlight the benefits of 'i health', which boosts advancement in delivery of services particularly home health service, aids business recruitment and retention locally, workforce developments/jobs using IT and quality of life and longevity gains. Further, clinical trials represent multi-crore business that can apply telemedicine technologies to extend the reach of clinical trials to include provider and patient participation from rural communities, added the organisers.
The providers of telemedicine in India can assure emergency room support through video link to save lives, accuracy of diagnosis/reduction of medical errors with tele-assistance and second opinions, multifold increase in efficiency and CME/Life long learning through 'i health'.
The congress will be attended by medical specialists, members from business houses, IT companies, insurance sector, tele communication companies, pharma industry, clinical research, equipment manufacturers, government and non-government organizations, administrators and researchers in the field of medicine.