Remote control surgeries through telemedicine

On January 12, when one-year-old Siddhesh N (name changed) from the hinterlands of Karnataka needed a liver transplant, he was brought to a multi-speciality hospital in Bangalore. As the 13-hour surgery played out at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in the IT city, an anaesthetist based seven seas away in the US, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, could see it live over a webcam.

The Narayana Hrudayalaya anaesthetist’s moves were being closely monitored by the US doctor, who was doling out expert advice from the Philadelphia hospital, one of the world’s best in paediatric anaesthesia.

The Philadelphia hospital and the Bangalore operation theatre were connected through telemedicine, a technology that allows the patient and the doctor, or also different doctors, to interact face-to-face without being in the same city, or even the same country.

Audiovisual clues give important insights into the patient’s ailment and the doctor gets a better diagnosis. Abhay P Singavi, head of telemedicine at Narayana Hrudayalaya, says, “Telemedicine brings in accuracy and precision to surgeries as experts can monitor the procedures.” Telemedicine, which is revolutionising the $40-billion healthcare market in India, uses two components. The hardware component consists of plasma screens, TV monitor, videoconferencing equipment, etc, while the software component comprises very small aperture terminal (VSAT) or broadband IP.

Earlier, if patient history and diagnosis, in the form of X-rays, ultrasound, blood pressure, ECG, etc, could be seen and heard by a doctor miles away, now even surgeries are being performed using telemedicine.

Kumar Menon, physician-in-charge (medical informatics and telemedicine) at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Kochi, Kerala, says, “Junior surgeons can be guided by seniors for doing various invasive and non-invasive procedures using telemedicine. This helps bring a high level of perfection to the surgery.” Menon adds that about three months ago, a senior surgeon at AIMS used telemedicine to guide a junior one performing a laser surgery on a patient with diabetic retinopathy.

The advantages of telemedicine during surgeries are many. Besides bringing accuracy to the procedure, it addresses the issue of paucity of doctors, most importantly specialists, says K Ganapathy, co-founder of the Telemedicine Society of India, and president of Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation.

Operations performed through telemedicine also prove cost-effective for the patient. Furthermore, surgeries through telemedicine serve as an efficient educational tool for surgeons.