Teleconsultation roadmap — the path to telemedicine

Abstract

ViduSuwa is an Internationally recognized award winning tele-medicine solution which provides facilities to the remote areas of Sri Lanka. In a country that is rebuilding itself from decades of war, providing extended healthcare facilities to every section of the society is a complex challenge. ViduSuwa offers to meet this challenge by delivering health services at a minimal cost. Patients living in the most remote areas can now receive the services of experts in the medical profession even if they are hundreds of miles apart. People can benefit without unnecessarily travelling great distances to meet medical consultants, thus saving cost and inconvenience. This is achieved by using easily acquirable and relatively inexpensive technology. It has been proven beyond doubt that the most successful projects always had the secret of integrating people, process and technology successfully. This paper highlights this evolutionary approach using the Teleconsultation Roadmap for eHealth transformation which takes into consideration cultural and other factors specific to Sri Lanka. It has eight stages for global connectivity in healthcare and uses a simple to practice, yet, very successful, evolutionary approach. This helps any country to systematically and successfully eTransform the Health sector ensuring sustainable and quality healthcare to all citizens.