[Telecentres] Telemedicine activities of SDNP Bangladesh

[Hakikur Rahman]

Telemedicine activities of SDNP Bangladesh

Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) of Bangladesh funded 
by  United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), started its journey of 
Telemedicine back in January, 2003. In its 1st phase, a 15 months long 
"e-Health & Learning" (e-HL) project was deployed by SDNP, which was 
partially funded by the European Commission under the Asia IT&C programme. 
The project was coordinated by the Centre for Research of Applications of 
Telematics to Organization and Society (CRATOS) of Catholic University in 
Italy. University of Birmingham in UK and Bangladesh University of 
Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Bangladesh worked as partners. During 
that phase several workshops and seminars were held locally and 
internationally. Eight seminars were also delivered to Physicians in Dhaka 
and Mymensing in Bangladesh.

The project built two network segments using point-to-point radio link with 
a bi-directional bandwidth of 2 Mbps. The first setup of the segment was in 
Dhaka and it connected the SDNP node at BIDS with the Comfort Nursing Home, 
covering an air distance of about 8 km. The second one was established from 
SDNP node in Mymensingh (120 km away from Dhaka) to a Community Based 
Medical College and Hospital (CBMCH), about 6 km away from Mymensingh node, 
creating a length of 134 km (including existing 120 km of SDNP backbone) of 
radio link with 4 hops in between.

As a follow up of the telemedicine initiative in Bangladesh, SDNP 
Bangladesh has started telemedicine sessions from early August 2005. The 
project has arranged several telemedicine sessions since August 2005 using 
its own infrastructure and manpower. These sessions included real patients 
at the remote and with one physician, and one medical expert was present at 
the head office to provide suggestions acting as third opinion. These 
sessions will continue (every Friday) for each of the regions of SDNP 
Bangladesh (Cox's Bazar, Dinajpur, Mymensingh and Satkhira) throughout the 
rest of 2005. The activities took place up to 6th September 2005 are listed 
below.

Activities in Cox's Bazar (Regional Node of Chitagong region):

In presence of handful number of patients and a local physician, first ever 
telemedicine program was held at Cox's Bazar region on the 5th of August. 
One specialist doctor at Dhaka head office of SDNP delivered medical 
consultation to those patients in Cox's Bazar Regional Node office of SDNP. 
A real time video conferencing was used in this session.

Second session of telemedicine session in Cox's Bazar region was held on 
26th of August. As a reminiscent of first session the second session has 
held between the regional node and Head Office in BIDS. Specialized doctor 
of Dhaka gave away his specialist opinion to the poor fishermen and 
patients from that region including Moheshkhali after having an online 
discursion with them.

Next session for this regional node is scheduled on 23rd September 2005. 
According to the local media, this was a remarkable event for poor and 
neglected people of that region.

Activities in Satkhira (Regional Node of Khulna region):

Like Coxe's Bazar region, a telemedicine session also held in Satkhira 
regional node on 19th August 2005, in presence of a local physician in 
regional node and one specialist physician from Dhaka at Dhaka head office. 
Unlike Cox's bazaar, the conference was interrupted in the halfway due to 
Power Failure at Satkhira end and it is rescheduled on 9th September 2005. 
in that short session of 19th August, 4 patients got the consultation.
And likewise Cox's Bazaar the response from people was remarkable.

Activities in Dinajpur (Regional node of Rajshahi region):

As a program of nationwide telemedicine service, Dinajpur region had it's 
first ever telemedicine session on 2nd September 2005. The session went for 
two hours. A Specialist physician in Dhaka head office of SDNP gave free 
medical consultation to four patients in Dinajpur Regional node of SDNP 
after having a video conferencing with physician. Two physicians from 
Dinajpur Medical College Hospital have assist to carry out the program in 
the regional node.

All the above events were attended by local press club's journalists and 
were highly appreciated by the local media.

Hakikur Rahman
Project Coordinator
SDNP Bangladesh.
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