MEDICAL DATA SHARING BETWEEN HOSPITALS FOR TELEMEDICINE

Abstract

In a developing country like India, primary health facility for all the population is not available. The rural hospitals are ill equipped and short of staff. The cost of medical equipment and expert guidance is skyrocketing. In this situation, the only ray of hope is an efficient management of resources. Time of the expensive equipment and experts should not be wasted. There is a need of coordination between rural and urban hospitals. Using new telecommunication means the gap between rural and city hospital can be reduced. This form of medical technology is called telemedicine. If Telemedicine is effectively operated for the masses it may prove to be the cheapest mode of therapy and it will be more reliable, satisfactory and fast than conventional therapy. The information technology revolution has made way for digitization of all data and easy communication of digital data. There is a need of hospital information system in every hospital for managing the resources effectively and thus Internet can connect that hospital to other hospitals globally. Universal presence of Internet makes World Wide Web (www) best tool for sharing any form of data. WWW can contain the varied form of data like text, audio, image and even video. Thus growing awareness and its mass use can make it cheapest mode of data sharing. This dissertation presents an attempt to make a web site of a hospital where the data of patients will be kept with due confidentiality. When a patient registers himself, the doctor would recommend tests and time. Lab Assistants will upload the data of tests. Authorized person (doctor) can view the data and prescribe treatment to the patient using e-mail. Since the web site can be seen anywhere, a patient outside his hometown can contact the hospital for his details. A city hospital expert can contact super-specialists if the need be.