KOLKATA: A doctor from Kolkata, whose experience working in the state’s health centers has now formed the basis of a successful experiment for remote neonatal care being conducted by a hospital in Cambridge, England, has shown that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), one of the most successful health services across the globe, acknowledged for its high standard of care and affordability, has taken a leaf out of Bengal’s hospitals.
The NHS has committed to funding the program for the upcoming year. The NHS currently funds the “Locants” system.Soon, locants may be introduced in a few western and southern Indian hospitals.
Arunava Dhar, a Kolkata native and 2000 MBBS graduate of RG Kar Medical College who pioneered the method in the UK, said that talks are on with the Bengali government to implement the system in the state hospitals that served as the model’s initial source of inspiration.
Speaking at a conference on Sunday in Kolkata under the theme “Med-Fusion – Bridging East and West in Healthcare Excellence,” Dhar stated, “We are talking to health officials here so that the system can be implemented in Kolkata and Bengal hospitals.”
Following his migration to the UK in 2010, Dhar partnered with techie Ranadeep Chatterjee, a serial entrepreneur and AI specialist from Kolkata who is now based in London, to develop the technology and raise capital for a remote neonatal care system that currently serves thousands of people in Cambridge and the surrounding area in the east of the United Kingdom.
The Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge hosted the experiment’s debut last year. It uses online video interfaces to facilitate real-time remote online consultations between Addenbrooke’s specialists and four smaller hospitals in the east of the United Kingdom. It will be extended to 17 hospitals next month.
Locants, the system used by the NHS in the UK, is powered by advanced software and hardware created by techies Ranadeep Chatterjee and Arunava Dhar, an MBBS from RG Kar Medical College who graduated in 2000.
A 360° rotating camera on one side and a 270° rotating camera on the other are installed on the Locants cards of the smaller centers. It provides a thorough understanding of the youngster. It enables us to train local medical professionals who can perform on camera while being closely monitored in real time,” Dhar, a Belgharia native, added. Five fewer children now need to be admitted to hospitals as a result of the system.
Dhar came onto the concept of remote treatment while working at hospitals in Bengal; today, it is a crucial component of the state’s healthcare system.
At the symposium, state health secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam stated that one lakh patients in Bengal used telemedicine every day. We are considering integrating technology into health programs such as the paperless Swasthya Sathi system. He added that Bengal spent Rs 70,000 crore on healthcare yearly. “We are incorporating AI and plan to introduce a health ID for electronic health records,” he said.
According to Ranadeep Chatterjee, a Google consultant, the UK spent four times as much on healthcare as India did, but three times as much on clinical research. “A lot of startups are focused on delivering healthcare to remote areas through technology and research,” he stated.
The Bengali pair is working with ‘Reach’ to take the project to the eastern part of India.
British deputy high commissioner in Kolkata Andrew Fleming claimed that Indian doctors working in the UK have improved the country’s healthcare system. “Just as an Indian playing country cricket benefits from the exposure to swing and overcast conditions in England, Indian doctors working in NHS, too, gain from different clinical practices, patients and an integrated system,” he stated.
Rupali Basu, the head of RP Goenka Group, and doctor and filmmaker Kamaleshwar Mukherjee attended the symposium. Award winners included pediatrician Arun Singh and author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay.
SOURCE:
TIMES OF INDIA
