Monthly Archives: September 2005

Fresh look at Telemedicine- scope

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Telemedicine has made a lot of news for the wrong reasons. Partly because there has been a little understanding about the same.

I remember that in the earliest articles I had laid a case for nationwide roll out of Telemedicine. However, it has become increasingly clear to me that beyond its novelty value, there isnt much to recommend it.

At the most, people might use it for “second opinion”; this itself is dicey. In their own enthusiasm, people might be willing to ignore their own best interests. I remember a particular case who had cancer of the food pipe. Of course, the poor lady had no hope for survival; yet surgery would have given her syptomatic relief. There was of course, a difference of opinion between two consultants. It is an isolated case, but there might be many ways to approach a problem.

I am not suggesting that one ought to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I have already mentioned, the utility and a viable business model of Teleradiology. What else can it do?

It maybe possible in say screening for diseases in the periphery or for reporting the extent of the diseases. Very often, the reporting is delayed and relies on the good old postal system. It maybe possible in the future to alert the authorites to take corrective action in case there is any isolated outbreak of a disease.

It can also be used for training of the health workers in the periphery. The same equipment can be used for streaming videos or perhaps as a part of the literacy campaign- the digital projector and the computer in one unit. Of course, it would work in Linux!

How often I have wished that there were adequate facilities in the periphery. One may argue that this is possible via television- which has arguably more reach than telecom companies can hope to reach. However, these are value added services. It is possible to generate localised content and offer it as means of health education in people’s own language. Prevention is better than cure anyday. With increasing health care costs, it makes sense to educate people about the means of prevention; rather than treat them for complications.

As I mentioned about the teleradiology model, I believe that it maybe useful to access the services for radiology in the peripheral areas; digitised XRays are available. Offline loading on to a computer and hooking it up to the central database. This would facilitate diagnosis of the people suffering from various ailments. Of course, they would prove themselves to be great teaching slides.

There are various ways and means in case we wish to utilise the existing infrastructure to solve our present problems. It needs clear articulate thinking and application of mind. Not go gaga over it.

Comments are invited.

Back to Telecom! Is Bharti planning DTH foray?

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Is Bharti Televentures planning to enter the DTH market?

The pointers are all there despite their denials. As a consolidated operator- i.e. mobile telephony business, broadband through DSL and their own manufacturing set up for equipments, this is distinct possibility. They might hook up content via tie ups with the private operators, make a hullaballo about it and earn handsome profits.

They have started manufacturing their own set top boxes; initially they might be sold to upcoming operators and later they might just decide to branch out on their own.

By current estimates, there are roughly 80+ million subscribers to the Cable TV- given the fact that Entertainment sells. In a way, this is a huge captive market. The operators are going all out to tie up with various PC vendors to be able to make a dent in their flat sales graphs. Yet it is clear that there is clear lack of “killer application”. Bharti, is anyway, at the forefront to demand spectrum for 3G services, based on the premise that there would large number of post paid customers to sign up for the same. Streaming Internet would sound fanciful anyway.

Then Mr Sunil Bharti is rich and awash with cash. He decided, initially to bid for Airport modernisation- he burnt his fingers in the labyrithine files that are so beloved of the bosses up. Given their penchant to talk through media- it was clear that the government wasn’t really upfront about it all.

Direct to Home platform would assure these operators of a steady stream of revenue in the future- they may even be able to co-brand their services. For example, with a DTH, an Airtel landline free! Well, perhaps it would take someone like Sachin to convince us about the merits for signing up with Airtel.

Personal Blogging?

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Is personal blogging the in thing? There are people who make money by blogging- I have no hassles to that. However, I have always felt that it is too difficult to rely on a single person’s perspective about an industry.

People who report from the sidelines as journalists, howsoever the “reputed” medium it maybe, there is always a risk that they are echoing the industry as a whole. Hence, ever since I realised this, I changed from merely reporting events to adding my own comments as to how it would affect you as ordinary consumers ( that includes me! )

Infact, this blog wouldnt have been up there if Sify Broadband weren’t there. We wanted to get together those people who suffered at the hands of the organised mafia out to loot our hard earned money.

There has been enough talk about Search Engine Optimisation; there are people who link extensively to their own write ups and those from other blogs. This results in higher rankings in the search engines. Once the popularity is ensured, the industry queues up to advertise- those banner ads appear and well, one ends being just another industry mouth piece.

Of course, there are exclusive reviews; a subtle means of advertising. One would naturally try out something that has been recommended by “reputed” people- a kind of a brand image exercise.

How far is the personal blogging relevant then? Frankly, I go by the gut feel myself. There are few blogs that I never miss- partly because they talk sense. Partly because its worth it to have their viewpoint and expand your own horizon.

However, most of the Indian bloggers in the blogopshere ramble on and on without any counter point being entertained. There are numerous examples-I dont want to elaborate.

Of course, this is my own viewpoint. I have always gone with the disclaimer- reading the contents of this blog may be injurious to your brains!