Telemedicine, which rests on the convergence of new technologies like the Internet, high-grade scanning and broadband services, is now being looked upon as one solution to this skewed distribution of the Indian healthcare delivery system. In a bid to share from the experiences on global telemedicine, experts from all across the world are slated to gather here for the first conclave on Telemedicine, Telemed 2000, under the aegis of the CII on April 14 and 15.

Understandably the deliberations, which will be kicked off by the Union IT Minister Pramod Mahajan, will focus heavily on IT applications and their role in healthcare apart from policy issues on the subject. For starters, the healthcare industry wants the Union government to include telemedicine within the ambit of the IT Task Force and to be treated on par with any other IT-enabled service, says Sangita Reddy, chairperson Telemed2000. Thus, along with sessions on international experiences in telemedicine and technology, there is a special session on integrated policy formulation which is to be attended by several bureaucrats and policy makers.