Cisco, Narayana Health team up to protect data in tele-medicine services

As digital transformation brings more users, devices and applications online, corporates and even hospitals are struggling to protect malware attacks.

To counter this, Cisco recently teamed up with Narayana Health, a multi-speciality healthcare service provider, to deliver speciality healthcare services in remote areas.

“Skype is passe. It is not an embedded network. Especially in the field of telemedicine, where security is of prime concern,” says VC Gopalratnam, President of Information Technology, Cisco India.

Stating that malware and cyberattacks are not limited to data systems, he points out that viruses tend to attack patients as well as medical data.

Narayana Health and Cisco have signed a memorandum of understanding to roll-out a medical grade network that will enable the hospital to offer diagnostic services in oncology, neurology, cardiology and nephrology, to patients remotely across India.

Pointing out that telemedicine services have been predicted as the next big thing in India's healthcare sector, Gopalratnam notes it is imperative to have a product that decreases complexity and enables healthcare providers serve patients almost everywhere.

Cisco’s solution brings voice, two-way video and data to wherever patients are located, and even enables ECG, other vitals and radiology, and analytics of medical reports.

The solution also allows doctors to conduct highly critical diagnostics such as Diacom viewing and detection of thrombolysis in cardiac care.

The encrypted, secure platform also ensures the privacy of patient records, and the service is stored on the cloud.

“We did a pilot in Raichur around 3-4 years ago, wherein we adopted five villages. In 2010, we also used the solution in a remote part of Karnataka prior to its rollout,” adds Gopalratnam, who is also Cisco’s Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Cisco is to integrate and set up the advanced telemedicine solution across three centres at first. Sirsi and Bellary in Karnataka and Rajarhat, “a new township in West Bengal, would be linked via the main centre” at Narayana Health City located in Bommasandra, Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Stating that primary healthcare and its inaccessibility is a persistent concern, Gopalratnam notes that though healthcare access and solutions have evolved to a higher stage in urban areas, it needs to be delivered remotely to patients in rural pockets.

“Correct diagnosis is crucial while dealing with a patient who has undergone a brain stroke. There needs to be complete vision to ensure a more accurate diagnosis,” he says, adding that hospitals have begun the transition to create infrastructure that adds value to patient care.

“Narayana Health has a strong strategy in place, and though their tele-medicine solution has evolved, there is a higher requirement of bandwidth. We have got it in place, including data video on IP (Internet Protocol), which conform to the secure medical grade network regulation that ensures patient confidentiality,” says the CIO, adding the enhanced version of the solution would be rolled out at multi-speciality hospitals.

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