The benefit of Telemedicine in giving access to healthcare services across geographical barriers or circumstances causing lack of physical contact with care providers has been realized by one and all during the recent Covid-19 Pandemic.

One such telemedicine platform A Health ATM or Telemedicine Kiosk was jointly inaugurated by Prof Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur and Prof R K Dhiman, Director, SGPGI Lucknow, which is an integrated Computer, Biomedical diagnostics, Point of Care laboratory tests and videoconferencing system connected to Internet based network connecting Telehealth clinic with Doctors at a distance.

The inauguration event was also attended by Prof Ganesh, Deputy Director, IITK, Prof Harish, DORD, IITK, Head, EE and Dr Mamta Vyas, CMO, Health center, IITK among others. This health ATM has been set up as a collaborative venture between Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and SGPGI, Lucknow.

Prof Laxmidhar Behera and Prof SK Mishra made a presentation about the health ATM and its use in preventive personalized health care for IITK residents.

India lives in its villages so said by our Father of the Nation, so we should ensure all the public services of the government should reach our fellow citizens living in far flung areas. Health services no exception. With rapid advancement of telecommunication technology and it’s deployment in particular the wireless based Internet offer an unique opportunity to deliver healthcare services using such kind of portable low cost integrated platform. Government of India in it’s mission of promoting digital technologies for public good has commissioned National Health Authority, one of it’s objective is to offer digital health care for all its citizens and ensure they have a personal health record in electronic form which can be transported across the healthcare providers, institutions cutting down all kinds of geographical and manmade barriers.

The system when operational in the campus of IIT Kanpur will ensure creation of electronic Personal Health Record (PHR) not only for it’s own employee and their families but other dependent on the institution. Besides creation of PHR , the research on the health data so generated using machine learning technologies and tools can open new avenues of health date analytics to offer predictive and personalized medicine. One of our focus on research would be analysis of health date of all patients during the recovery from Covid-19 infection to study it’s effects on Respiratory, Cardiovascular and other body systems to identify at-risk cases and intervene at an appropriate time to prevent disastrous consequences.

The result of our study in collaboration with medical doctors of SGPGI will lead to possibility of deployment in Smart City Projects where smart health technologies like Internet of Medical Things using cloud computing are one of the deliverables and also Tele-ICU projects where Remote Monitoring if Patients (RPM) are possible applications.

We are looking forward to venture into these new areas as soon the Health ATM is operational and wish to thank SGPGI and Government of Uttar Pradesh for its support.