Musings of a Cardiologist

From today I will publish a series of posts that are going to concentrate exclusively on Telemedicine and its practical applications. The first post deals with a basic introduction to the early yet exciting world of Telemedicine.

First off the definition. According to WHO, there are no less than 104 peer reviewed definitions of Telemedicine. So, for matters of convenience we will take the WHO definition of Telemedicine as the standard:

“The delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by all health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health care providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities”

 Telehealth is a new field of endeavor and one in which many of the waters are uncharted. But if telemedicine and Telehealth are going to provide ideal solutions for today’s population then the main problem is how to fit the people to the technology rather than the development of technology to previously uncharted and inaccessible height. Will telemedicine truly revolutionize healthcare? Only time can tell because the adoption of telemedicine is dependent on a myriad collection of economic, social, cultural factors.

 Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have great potential to address some of the challenges faced by both developed and developing countries in providing accessible, cost effective, high quality health care services. Telemedicine uses ICTs to overcome geographical barriers, and increase access to health care services. This is particularly beneficial for rural and underserved communities in developing countries – groups that traditionally suffer from lack of access to health care.

The importance of evaluation within the field of Telemedicine cannot be overstated: the field is in its infancy and while the promise is great, evaluation can ensure maximization of profits. ICTs can be costly as can be the programs using it. Indeed, The most frequently cited barrier to telemedicine worldwide is its cost.

Well here is an Interesting article that i read some time back and today i would like to share it with you all. Its about certain aspects of work life which go unheeded over a long period of time but could possibly hinder our development.First, Some stats:

1. Musculoskeletal pain is the most cited reason for missed work and the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old.
2. A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics states that over 25 million Americans experience frequent back pain at any given moment.
3. The Institute of Medicine estimates the cost of lost productivity due to pain to be between $297 billion and $335 billion in 2010 dollars.

Now that is some surprising facts i bet u didn’t know.So, How do we tackle this menace ? The answer to this lies in making your workplace more ergonomically sound.Here I enlist some steps to do that:

1. Stand-up, walk, or stretch for a few minutes every hour
2. Avoid repeating the same motion over and over again e.g. answer email for an hour then make phone calls for an hour. Mix up your meetings throughout the day.
3. Make sure you your chair and posture are correctly aligned
   1. Your seat and pelvis should be parallel to the ground with your feet resting comfortably on the floor
   2. You should have lumbar support for your spine
4. You should relax your shoulders with your head positioned comfortably above your neck, not leaning forward to see the screen better
5. Your screen should only be an arms-length from your body
6. Your keyboard should be even with or lower than your elbows, if it’s not you need a keyboard tray.
7. Your monitor should be eye level. Looking up or down causes neck pain.

These steps will ensure that the next time you get body aches you know what it is due and what you can do to stop it.

“I don’t believe medical discoveries are doing much to advance human life. As fast as we create ways to extend it we are inventing ways to shorten it.”
                                                                                                                                                         – Christian Barnard

Rightly said, Medicine as a whole right from the times of Aristotle has been advancing and has its fair share of controversies. Among them one of it is whether it has advanced the general condition of living or rather decreased it.

Granted that the average life expectancy has increased as a whole increased from about 30 years during 1900 to approx 70 years now but what we are concerned over here is the quality of life which should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income. Instead, standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment, but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging. As expected the quality of life is much harder to be measured. Among, the indexes used to measure it are emotional well being and life evaluation. On the basis of these indexes these it can be firmly argue that the increase in life expectancy has not been met with concurrent increase in quality in life. And most of the people will agree to live a life which is well lived albeit short.

Increasing your quality of life is easily said than done and I am sure today’s so called ‘cutting edge’ medicine is doing nothing in this respect rather it ends being financially and sometimes an emotionally draining experience. From this perspective we need to shift our focus from pursuing herculean tasks of eradicating diseases to approaching healthcare problems with a more holistic approach taking into consideration various factors such as economic, social, cultural and sometimes even spiritual dimensions.