RAWALPINDI: Rizwana Bibi, suffering from some minor infection in a remote village of Attock, is being treated by a senior physician sitting at Holy Family Hospital, over 100 km away in Rawalpindi. It's because of 'telemedicine' that thousands of patients in far away areas get treatment from specialist doctors based in cities.

The live demonstration of patient treatment at HFH was also witnessed by US Ambassador Cameron Munter and his wife Dr Marilyn Wyatt since the project is a joint collaboration between Pakistan and US governments.

According to details shared with Dawn by the US embassy, around $16 million had been spent on science and technology development projects in the country and telemedicine was one of them.

In one of the operation rooms, doctors showed mock drills to ambassador Munter mastering the art of treating patients using three-dimensional (3D) software for conducting surgery.

The 3D software has helped trainee doctors gain experience for using both the hands professionally during a surgical procedure, ensuring that chances of error are limited by checking the drill score on the software.

The software also has a supportive hardware for doctors on which they can get training while watching their performance on the digital screen.

When Dr Wyatt asked the doctors about privacy of obstetrics and gynecology patients, Dr Zafar replied: “Patient signs a slip and then their details are kept confidential and everything stays between the doctor and the patient while they are also briefed a bit about how our telemedicine system works.”

Dr Zafar elaborated that telemedicine had been playing a key role in limiting health bill specifically in remote areas.

“Only 20 per cent patients suffering from severe ear, nose and tongue diseases are coming to HFH from Attock after the launch of telemedicine,” said Dr Zafar.

Doctors get in advance the images of patients' disease areas like picture of broken bones, and during a routine consultancy they suggest medicine through a live teleconference arranged on monitors with the help of internet and satellite communication.The US ambassador told the media that such projects indicated that both the governments were bridging the gap and benefiting each other with an aim of having more people-to-people contacts.

He said such projects were very encouraging for the development of health sector as the technology proved benefits to thousands of people.