The Union government has launched the National Teleconsultation Centre (CoNTeC).

Context

The Union government has launched the National Teleconsultation Centre (CoNTeC).

About

• The project CoNTeC, an acronym for COVID-19 National Teleconsultation Centre, has been conceptualised by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and has been implemented by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
• The CoNTeC is a Telemedicine Hub established by AIIMS, New Delhi, wherein expert doctors from various clinical domains will be available 24x7 to answer the multifaceted questionsfrom specialists from all over the country.
• It is a multi-modal telecommunications hub through which 2 way audio-video and text communications can be undertaken from any part of the country as well as the world at large.
• The CoNTeC is also fully integrated with the National Medical College Network (NMCN) to conduct a full fledged Video Conference (VC) between the 50 Medical Colleges connected through the NMCN with its National Resource Centre located at SGPGI, Lucknow. 
  
  

How to Contact the CoNTeC?

• A single mobile number (+91 9115444155) can be dialled from anywhere in the coutnry/world by COVID-19 treating doctors to reach the CoNTeC which has six lines that can be used simultaneously at present. This number of lines can be increased in future if needed.
• The incoming calls will be picked up by the CoNTeC Managers, who will then handover the call to the appropriate expert doctors from the clinical domains as desired by the calling specialists managing the COVID-19 cases anywhere in the country.
• The Managers will guide the callers in establishing a two way video call using the WhatsApp, Skype or Google Duo as preferred by the caller.
• The callers from the NMCN network can connect anytime using the Telemedicine infrastructure at their end.
  
  

 Benefits of the initiative:

• Expertise: It has been set up in the AIIMS so that the small states should also make use of the vast experience of the Doctors at AIIMS.
• Connecting doctors: The doctors world over are using different protocols to treat COVID-19 patients and the goal of the facility is to at least connect the doctors in the country together to discuss amongst themselves the protocols undertaken and provide the best treatment accordingly.
• Benefit of consultation: With the present facility, the poor would be able to get benefit of consultation form the topmost doctors of the country.
  
  

The road ahead:

To deal with such medical situations in future, all the medical colleges and AIIMS need to be connected together so that they can interact and help in the policy implementation for the country in the health sector. AIIMSs should become hub of activity for the district hospitals to connect with them for consultation, telemedicine, education, training, interaction and exchange of protocols between themselves.