Leading healthcare provider Apollo Hospitals has entered into a partnership with networking company, Cisco to offer cheaper telemedicine services and connect the patients in remote areas with the leading medical practitioners in the country.
The Cisco HealthPresence Extended Reach technology would enable doctors to offer medical advice to patients in distant areas. The Apollo Hospitals Group and the Apollo Telemedicine Foundation has already applied Extended Reach solution in many of its remote clinics where patient are given access to any doctor across the Apollo network.
Apollo Telemedicine Foundation president K. Ganapathy said, “The latest technology provided by Cisco makes the work of a doctor more convenient. Earlier, the doctor would go in search of a telemedicine room, but the new technology provided by Cisco helps the doctor connect with patients on a laptop supported by an internet connection and web camera.”
He further expressed that even as doctors remain far away from the patient’s locations the technology enables them to perform a detailed clinical examination, give medical advice and also interact with the patients through a webcam.
The executive director of Apollo Hospitals Group, Sangita Reddy said that the group already had the biggest telemedicine network however it was not able to cover the rural areas in the country as it required a very high investment in the beginning. She added that the partnership has made it cost-effective and user-friendly.
Vishal Gupta, vice president of Cisco, said: “Using this new desktop-based healthcare solution, we create an environment similar to what patients experience when they visit their doctor.”
