The Hindu Business Line : UB affiliate bets on telemedicine

YOU may be scaling the Mount Everest, but your critical cardio-vascular statistics could be monitored in faraway, John Hopkins University in the US. That's the power of telemedicine.

The telemedicine market in India has been estimated to be at $3 million and is virtually untapped. And the Pittsburgh-based UBICS, an affiliate of the $2-billion multinational UB Group, is planning to target this very opportunity available in the country.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Robert C. Harbage, President and CEO, UBICS, said, "Our market research has indicated that there are about 43,000 hospitals in India and not one is without queues. Telemedicine would help connect the remote parts of India with some of the well-known hospitals." Private hospital and private practitioners are providing currently more than 80 per cent of the healthcare.

UBICS feels that connecting district hospitals, health centres, community health centres (CHC) at block level and district hospital and primary health centre (PHC) at village level and community health centres with super-speciality hospitals for health care and delivery of medical advice could be a good business opportunity.

The company is targeting healthcare institutions, big and small, private and public sector, which are looking at telemedicine to reach out or expand business. It will initiate talks with various State Governments to implement telemedicine projects. As a first step the UB Group and UBICS have launched a pilot project in three hospitals in Bangalore. It also plans to expand this system across Karnataka, and other underserved areas of India. Over the last few years UBICS has been providing Web-based applications to both Government and non-governmental sectors.

Currently the company has a software solutions development centre in India and is planning to market its telemedicine solutions across the country. The company will offer equipment to monitor the cardio-vascular and pulmonary system that can be transmitted to medical practitioners using an Internet or telephone.

The cost of installation is around $25,000 and would go down with more number of installations.

The company claims that the medical expenses could be brought down drastically using telemedicine. "In the US. Medical expenses have come down to one-tenth the expenses using telemedicine," MR James Tuchi, President, UBICS Healthcare Solutions, said.

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UB affiliate bets on telemedicine