Telenor and Telemedicine: Umair Naeem
Sunday, April 20, 2008 6:51
Telemedicine has always been something that I’ve felt to be the ultimate example of technology bridging the gap between the underprivileged and quality service. In this case, quality service refers to quality diagnosis and consultancy from a qualified doctor. In a country like Pakistan, this is a very apt possibility, because the majority of the population lives in rural areas where they do not have access to qualified doctors and basic health facilities. Quacks are also very easily available, and this leads to misdiagnosis, further complicating ailments for the underprivileged. Isn’t this the ultimate opportunity for representatives from various industries to come together for some sort of an effort to make affordable as well as quality telemedicine possible in the country? When you have a burgeoning Telecom, IT and Pharma industries, then isn’t that the natural way forward?
In Pakistan, apart from a few initiatives, nothing major in the field has materialized. www.ehealth-services.com is one such initiative, as well as the work done by Engro and Ziauddin Hospital. Recently though, we saw Telenor usher in its ‘Tele-doctor 1911’ service, and I couldn’t wait to give it a test run! Before I actually launch into the review of the service, here’s an overview of the service. It is offered in various languages, primarily in Urdu and English, and costs Rs.8 per minute. It offers qualified doctors giving you advice on ailments, tests, among other things, and is being touted as the complete solution for bringing better health care to Pakistan. The doctors are also going to be keeping a record of ailments and the caller, thus creating a medical history, which will make future diagnosis of the same patient more effective.
My first reaction is always skeptic when such ventures are launched, and in this particular case, it was very similar. Firstly, at Rs.8 per minute, it is relatively cheaper than going to actually physicians or ‘muhalla’ doctors, who can cost from Rs.40 – Rs.500, but still, for someone who is living through missed calls and Rs.100 scratch cards, an Rs.8 per minute call is pretty lavish. Secondly, how would these doctors tackle with visible symptoms, such as eye color, exhaustion, BP, heart rate and so on. No matter how good a doctor is, the diagnosis will always stay incomplete. It is primarily because of this reason that I have always advocated using Tele-conferencing software for telemedicine.
But, onto the Tele-doctor. A friend of mine called up the number, complaining about stomach ailment symptoms and acidity. Before the call was connected, a recorded voice explained to him what Hepatitis B is, not something that he was calling for. Shortly, the call was connected, and a lady doctor picked up the phone and started with taking the personals of my friend. Name, city, age and so on. Then they moved on to the ailments, and the doctor asked a few further questions regarding the symptoms. Upon the answer, she prescribed an antacid and a drug for stomach ache, and the call ended in four minutes or so. We felt that whereas the doctor sounded professional and qualified enough, she was not well trained in the art of talking on the phone so as to take information in quickly and efficiently. After all, at Rs.8 per minute, you want the doctors to be most efficient in information collection. Secondly, I felt that that doctor should have been given a software which would automatically bring up the name of the person who is calling, as that person would have a Telenor connection. This would make information collection much more effective and efficient.
Overall though, it seemed like a satisfactory service, and a good initiative going forward. One hopes that Telenor will continue to remove the kinks from the service and make it cheaper for the common man.
I will end this week’s column with my ‘Rant of the Week’, and this week I salute all those phone users who have a song instead of the usual ‘waiting to pick up the phone’ tone. It is quite strange calling up someone and having a song played for you while you wait for that person to pick up. You can not tell how many rings have gone by, and you don’t know whether to keep waiting or to pull the irritating song away from your ear. It is one of the silliest services offered by Telecom companies and is an excellent example of Gold Plating, whereby a company launched an ‘value added’ service which is just there as a novelty and adds very little value.
Till next week, Believe!
