Aravind
From TIER
This is a collaborative effort between the Aravind eye hospital network, the TIER group at the University of California, Berkeley, and Intel Corporation to use long-distance low-cost wireless technologies (WiLD).
Remote Eye-care using long-distance wireless
The long-distance wireless network allows eye specialists at Aravind Eye Hospital at Theni in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu to interview and examine patients in five remote clinics via a high-quality video conferencing.
With high-speed links to the hospital, the five clinics, also known as vision centers, screen about 2,000 patients each month and provide eye-care to 350,000 people in the Theni district. Centers are run by a nurse trained in eye care. Patients first see the nurse, then spend about five minutes on a web camera consulting with an Aravind doctor. If the doctor determines that a closer examination or an operation is necessary, the patient is given a hospital appointment. The vision centers have been operational for a year now, and would break-even in 2/3 years.
Future plans
The partners now plan expand this to include the five other hospitals in Tamil Nadu that will be eventually linked to 50 clinics supporting 20,000 remote examinations per month and serving 2.5 million patients each year. The system will also be augmented to transfer other clinical information like high resolution images of the eye and patient records.
