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Minutes of the MIDCON 2004, the first National Workshop on 'eHealth & Healthcare - exploring the issues & opportunities' held at CH/GRC on May 8-9, 2004.
Spread all over the 63023 route kilometers with its massive presence, the Indian Railway Medical Service provides comprehensive multidisciplinary multispeciality health care delivery to its 8.1 million beneficiaries, a population that is equivalent to a country like Denmark. IRMS has its own 124 hospitals, 584 Health Units, 13758 beds, 2552 doctors, 52088 paramedical staff and this IRMS takes care of an annual load of 30.3 million OPD cases, 36797 admissions and over 32329 major surgeries while catering the medical need of its beneficiaries.
Central Hospital, South Eastern Railway at Garden Reach a progressive organisation always believed that continual change is inevitable part of life and can dictate organization's viability. Like a newborn child in the world of computerization it had started its first unsteady steps way back in 20th April 1994 by introducing computerization of the 'Hospital Information Management System' with further plans to keep everything on the same platform.
Inspired by recent advances in the provision of health care through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and recognizing the common interest of the health and community welfare and the fact that the promotion of telemedicine will contribute to the availability of quality health care to those in need irrespective of socio economic and geographical disparities.
Railway Authorities believed that the telemedicine services envisaged in the country should be available for the benefit of all its fraternity located in rural, remote and inaccessible places. Railnet (Railway CWIS) have extended their helping hand towards HIMS and with the introduction of the 2 MBPS line HIMS one day hopes to exchange information with the divisional hospitals, health units of the same zone, other zonal hospitals and renowned private hospitals to get the benefit for the common railway man.
MIDCON-2004 the 1st National Workshop on medical Informatics was organised on 8th & 9th May 2004 by the Medical Department, South Eastern Railway, Kolkata under the aegis of Indian Association for Medical Informatics (IAMI) at the auditorium of Central Hospital, S. E. Railway. The central theme was 'e-Health & Healthcare - exploring the issues and opportunities'.
On 8th May it started with Inauguration of the videoconferencing session on a theme 'nearing the distance through videoconferencing under current perspective' by the welcome address of D.Y.C.Bhushanam, Chief Medical Director, South Eastern Railways. Dr.G.D.Gautama, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Government of West Bengal and the Chief Guest of the session eloquently spoke on the evolution of IT and subsequent synergy of Medical Science and ICT. He also emphasized the initiatives taken by the local Government under 'Advantage Bengal'. Dr.J.Ray, Medical Director offered the customary vote of thanks to the audience.
The videoconferencing session was divided into 3 parts where the Central Hospital got the connection with RTIICS, Kolkata, AIIMS, New Delhi & NST, Tromso, Norway. In the Part I, Dr.J.Ray, Medical Director & Chief Cardiologist lead the team at the auditorium and had a video consultation with the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata.
Dr.V.K.Gupta lead the team at RTIICS. Interestingly under arrangement with Asia Heart Foundation Dr.Devi Shetty from Narayana Hrudalaya, Bangalore addressed the gathering and appreciated the effort. Then BM Birla Heart Research Centre also was got connected for another session on cardiac cases where Dr.A.Kaul interacted with Dr.Ray and his railway patients. The Part II of the videoconferencing session AIIMS, the doctor's of the hospital discussed different problem faced in Radio imaging and had a teleradiology session with Dr.M.S.Gulati. Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine as scheduled could not be connected owing to limitations of the videoconferencing machine. However the Centre got connected through videophone but the Consultant Ms.Siri.Birgitte.Uldal left the centre by then. Dr.Sanyal made the platform presentation of the slides sent by her.
MIDCON 2004 aimed not only to popularize the telemedicine with its importance in the present day Health care delivery system but also to highlight the progress made in this field in Eastern India. Telemedicine is becoming more and more popular all over the world for its tremendous potential in providing cost effective health care delivery by nearing the distance. The core synergy between the Medical Science & the ICT is gradually paving the way for an extra mural hospital set up.
An all out effort has been made to make this 2 day conference as illustrative and informative as possible with live videoconferencing at local, national and international level where the aim was to have the Central Hospital get connected with the RTIICS & BM Birla Hospital at local level, AIIMS at National level and the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, Tromso at International level for video consultation respectively.
Scientific Session II started in the post lunch session with Prof.N.G.Rao as Chairperson on a theme: 'eHealth in India: A cross view of an emerging
horizon'. Dr.D.Lavanian, Director, Apollo Telemedicine Network Foundation (ATNF), Hyderabad gave deliberations on eHealth in India from concept to conformance- an overview'. While Prof.Indrajit Roy, Principal Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura explained in details on the subject eHeath & Telemedicine: ethical issues and concerns. Mr.S.Suresh Kumar, Secretary, West Bengal State AIDS Prevention & Control Society, Kolkata talked about the initiatives on Telemedicine taken by the Government of West Bengal. Lastly Dr.Sanjeev Garg of Asia Heart Foundation, Kolkata detailed about the experiences of RTIICS on Telecardiology.
The organizers have kept a 'Public Session' on the theme Computer Applications in Healthcare- a boon or a bane. The session was coordinated by Dr.N.G.Rao & Dr.Sathyalakshmi of the University of Hyderabad and was highly appreciated.
Prof.Shishir K.Dube, Director, IIT Kharagpur has inaugurated the MIDCON 2004 as Chief Guest on 8th May 2004 at 18.00 hrs in presence of Dr.O.P.Sharma, Guest of Honour & President, Indian Association for Medical Informatics and Dr.D.K.Das, Guest in Chief & Director General Railway Health Service who released the souvenir and the first issue of Indian Journal of Medical Informatics.
The Inaugural Ceremony was presided by Shri.R.R.Bhandai, General Manager of the South Eastern Railway. Following the inauguration the kids presented a well planned and executed dance & musical display of 'Sutanutee theke kolkata' aided with audio visual effect that earned a spot award of Rs.10000/- from the General Manager, South Eastern Railway. Day I ended with the cultural programme followed by dinner.
Day II on May 9th started with the platform presentations on the theme 'Medical Information Systems: The necessity, advantages and the
problems'. Dr.B.S.Bedi, Scientist G in the Department of Information Technology, Government of India spoke on Telemedicine & MIS: An Indian perspective, A discussion on 'Medical Informatics must be an Integral part of Medical Education' was made by Dr. S.N.Sarbadhikari, Asst Prof, School of Medical Science & Technology, IIT Kharagpur.
Dr.S.Sanyal of S.E.Railway. Kolkata elaborated on Railnet & Telemedicine: An upcoming horizon while the audience heard about the 'Development and applications of telemedicine using WBSWAN as backbone 64/128 kbps line for government hospitals in West Bengal from Prof.A.K.Mazumdar, Dean F&P, IIT Kharagpur and the 'Lessons from WBSWAN, West Bengal from Dr.J.N.Maiti, Director, Webel, Kolkata.
Dr.S.B.Gogia from New Delhi gave a platform presentation on Operationalisation of Telemedicine Systems in the Private Sector, while Dr Raaj Surwade of Bhopal explained the details of the project done a Bhopal.
In the pre lunch the exciting panel discussion was moderated by Dr.D.K.Das, Director General (RHS) and the session started on the theme 'Integration & implementation of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) for Healthcare Delivery to the masses- the myths & the realities'. Dr.G.D.Gautama, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Government of West Bengal, Dr.B.S.Bedi, Scientist, Department of IT, Government of India, Prof..A.K.Majumdar, Dean F& P, IIT Kharagpur and Dr.J.N.Maiti, Director, Webel, Kolkata participated in the lively discussion.
Presence of luminaries in the field of Telemedicine like Dr.B.S.Bedi of Department of IT, Govt of India, Dr. G.D Gautama, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Govt of West Bengal, Prof A.K.Majumadar of IIT Kharagpur, Dr.J.N.Maiti, Director, Webel and the eminent personalities with over 100 delegates from all over India took the opportunity of an ideal platform provided by the MIDCON 2004. All had threadbare discussions on different issues and opportunities available here in West Bengal.
Dr.J.N.Maiti & Dr.K.L.Passi chaired the Scientific Session IV i.e. the Free Papers:
The Following papers were read in MIDCON 2004.
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Telemedicine- present status & cost effectiveness, Dr.J.Ray, Medical Director, South Eastern Railway, Kolkata.
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Analysis of 8 years experience of Internet and medicine, Dr.A.Nanda, South East Central Railway, Bilaspur.
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Data warehousing and Data mining in Healthcare - an Overview. Dr. Suman Bhushan Bhattacharyya, Satyam Computers Services Limited, Hyderabad
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Analysis of ECG waveforms using Chaos Theory- M.M. Gori, Thane, Mumbai.
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A blue print to enhance healthcare delivery through Telehealth Network - Diabetopaedia.com - A Working Model on Diabetes- P.Venkateshan, Chennai.
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Development of an Electronic Medical Records System using Epi Info 3.4- Arindam Basu, GTB Medical Centre, Kolkata.
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Design and Development of an interactive web based classifier for kidney lesions-G. Kulanthaivel.
Valedictory: 'Making of the MIDCON 2004- looking through a digital kaleidoscope' enthralled everyone present in the auditorium with emotions and togetherness. The appreciations received for the delegates and the spot award of Director General inspired the organisers to do much better in future too. The Medical Department of the South Eastern Railway, Garden Reach is confident that success of the MIDCON 2004 will herald a new era in the field of Indian Healthcare scenario where the Indian Railways Medical Services propose to take a leading role.
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