GP expands telemedicine outreach

Grameenphone and the information and communication technology (ICT) ministry yesterday signed an agreement to set up 15 telemedicine centres in remote areas of the country to serve as proxy for face-to-face consultation.
The telemedicine centres will be installed with the Union Information Service Centres (UISC), developed by the ICT ministry few years ago.
Grameenphone piloted a telemedicine project last February, with three centres that have so far successfully treated 2,000 skin disease patients, said Arkanul Islam, the operator's CSR specialist.
“But this time, the initiative will be done on a larger scale to treat maternal health, child care or other general diseases.”
Equipment has already been developed to read pulse, blood pressure and heart beat, and a scanner has been installed with X-ray plates, to send reports to the consultant who will be based in Dhaka and work online.
The ICT ministry will ensure 1 megabit per second internet bandwidth at those union centres to support videoconferencing between the consultants and patients.
The entrepreneurs of UISC would be trained to operate the equipment, he said.
So far, 20 rural sites have been identified for the telemedicine
centres.
“Grameenphone is happy to expand the project to more areas. We believe it will be really helpful for rural people to consult with specialists on certain disease,” said Vivek Sood, chief executive officer of Grameenphone.
Telemedicine Working Group of Bangladesh is the technological partner, while Aysha Memorial Specialised Hospital Dusthya Sathya Kendro and Concern Worldwide are the implementing partners of the project.