Technology based Health care an Indian perspective : opportunities and challenges

Healthcare technology is in use for a decade or more in India. The use of technology in healthcare especially in public health is very common due to the recent development in Information Communication Technology. The cost of equipments in ICT in general are falling. But in healthcare, some of the equipments costs very high. Such equipments are commissioned in various locations in India. This includes some of the remote areas. The present talk is an attempt to assess the effect of such technology on the public health system. The utilisation of such systems depends on various factors. They include, costs involved in maintaining such systems, the benefits of such systems to the health personnel and the general population, what are the advantages of such systems over the traditional systems, what are the benefits of such systems on the administration, the impact on the managerial efficiency, how does the system address the HR needs in the public health, what the skills expected out of the health personnel and the general population for using such systems.