Reliance Infocomm Tied With Apollo To Provide Telemedicine Services

Reliance Infocomm, one of India's leading telecom companies, said Wednesday it had tied up with private healthcare chain Apollo Hospitals to provide telemedicine services in over 100 cities.

Under the agreement, Apollo Hospitals will leverage Reliance Infocomm's nationwide chain of 240 WebWorld cyber stores in 105 cities to offer high-quality healthcare services.

Reliance WebWorld will offer access to the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation (ATNF), said a company statement issued here.

ATNF is an all-India integrated multi-speciality telemedicine system with over 80 stations and over 2,000 in-house specialists and super-specialists.

Reliance Infocomm said the tie-up would bring a major respite to people living in areas devoid of high-class medical service, as they would not no longer have to travel long distances.

"All they have to do is go to the nearest Reliance WebWorld and submit their medical history and diagnostic reports," it added.

The reports and images would be digitised at Reliance WebWorld stores and transmitted over the company's broadband network to Apollo Hospital's centralised telemedicine portal.

Patient information will be reviewed on the portal and an appointment will be given with the appropriate Apollo specialist.

The patient will have to come to the WebWorld store on the appointed day where the specialist will meet the patient over video conferencing for a face-to-face consultation and opinion.

The opinion is recorded in the Apollo Telemedicine portal and a printout given to the patient at the WebWorld store at the end of the videoconference.

"Apart from easy access of medical facility, it will also lead to substantial savings on healthcare cost and time," said Sarup Chowdhary, chief executive officer of Reliance WebWorld.

--IANS