Long Distance WiFi for Telemedicine at Aravind Hospital,
Tamil Nadu, India
Sonesh SuranaTier Retreat, Oct 29, 2005
Tier, UC Berkeley
Outline
• Introduction to Aravind Eye Hospitals
• Need for Telemedicine
• Solution – Past and Current
• Link Usage
• Future Directions
Intro: Aravind’s Mission
• Eradication of Needless Blindness– 45m globally– 90% in developing world
• Sustainable
• Replicable
Intro: Patient Throughput
• 2003– 1.48m patients– 200k surgeries
– 1.5k free eye camps
• Each day– 4k patients– 540 surgeries– 3 camps/1000 ppl
• 1978-2003– 16m patients– 1.8m surgeries
– 19k free eye camps
Between 50% - 60% get free care. Yet sustainable and profitable
Need for Tele-Ophthalmology
• Shortage of Doctors 1
– No incentive to live in rural areas
• Low uptake of eye care services 2
– Transportation: Time, Cost, Company
• Intra-doctor/nurse consultation
1. Ref: http://aravind.org/Telemedicine_new/index.html
2. Ref: Low uptake of rural eye services in rural India: a challenge for programs of blindness prevention. Arch. Ophthalmology, 1999 Oct; 117(10):1393-9
Solutions: Existing Setup 1
• Mobile Van– VSat
• N-logue for video conf.– 35 Kbps– $50/month/center– Central Server – Served 3500
patients upto July 2005
1. More details at http://aravind.org/Telemedicine_new/index.html
Theni
Andipatti
Ambasamudram
N-logue
Solutions: Our setup• 10.5km 802.11b link – setup July 2005
• 24dbi Directional Antennas
• Soekris routerboards (~15watt)
• Voltage Stabilizers
• UPS batteries
• No LOS – need relay
Link Usage
• Operational for 3 months now (since Aug05)
• 4.5 Mbps UDP (~1-2% loss)
• 4-5 patients/day (better perceived video quality)
• Remote desktop management (VNC)– Training Nurses/Operators– Sotware Installation & Troubleshooting
• Streaming Movies (VideoLan)
Future Directions
Bodi
Theni Hospital
Ambasamudram
Andipatti
Kambam
Complex
Chimney
House
33.3 Kms
10.2 Kms