Telemedicine unit set up for home-quarantined people

A telemedicine unit has been set up by the control room led by District Collector S. Suhas to address health issues of suspected COVID-19 patients who are quarantine at home.

The unit provides video calling facility for people through which they can talk directly with experts.

Authorities suggest patients stay at home if there are no serious symptoms. The surveillance team in the Health Department contacts people under quarantine every day to enquire about their health. Their details are transferred to a website and the moderator calls them from a dedicated mobile number. Then a patient identity is given to them through WhatsApp. This facilitates experts to update patients’ details on the website after video consultation. The website also gives a reminder on the follow-up action. An automatic report is also generated every day.

If there are more calls, they will be directly assigned to doctors by the moderator. In case of extreme workload, multiple doctors stationed at different places could log in and join the telemedicine facility through their phone.

Source: The Hindu March 18, 2020