Comment: Telemedicine: An Era Yet to Flourish in India

It was pleasant reading through the article “Telemedicine: An Era Yet to Flourish in India” by Shilpa Sharma¹ in this esteemed journal. However, one of the most important uses of telemedicine is in the field of telecardiology, which has not been mentioned in this very important communication.² Telemedicine plays an important role in the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease so much, hence in acute cardiac emergency, it is of immense help in saving critical time “golden hour” for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction by tele-electrocardiogram (ECG) transmitted to heart command center at an apex hospital.³ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed “hand held 12-channel tele-ECG” instrument, a small hand held device that facilitates viewing the medical grade of a 12-lead ECG in real time on android smartphones. On a press of a button placed at the bottom, a noise-free, three-page PDF report comprising a standard report, a rhythm report, and a vector cardiogram in PDF format can be generated by the application. The device is designed to work on all variants of smartphones and with other mobile services such as WhatsApp and e-mail.⁴ Further, with improvement in information technology, the scope of telemedicine is widening everyday where we can send images of various investigations to the main center facilitating a quick diagnosis.