Rural E-Health Infrastructure Development - E-Healthcare Systems and Wireless Communications - page 191

instruments to associate them with a patient. RFID
readers will be portable so as to scan individu-
als in a hospital (USB connected) or in the field
(GPRS or other wireless). Data storage will be held
partly on the memory chips and on readers, but
complete records will be held in local databases
in the rural centers as well as a central database.
Medical records management will be web-based,
accessing databases as appropriate. Wireless com-
munications between the readers and databases
are provided via GPRS, although 3G etc may be
considered if applicable and feasible.
Implementation may be challenging with
diverse interests of multiple parties that may not
always be fully aligned. This can be overcome by
strong leadership and focus by the implementation
team. Overall, several challenges are identified.

• Circumnavigate diverse interests among

multiple parties and regulatory constraints
in scaling the solution.

6. HEALTHCARE AND E-HEALTH

6.1. Healthcare System in India

The issue of health in India comes under the pur-
view of the Ministry of Health and Family Wel-
fare 3 , and its three departments: the Department
of Health 4 , Department of Family Welfare 5 , and
the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy,
Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy 6 . In fact, there are
several central government bodies 7 responsible for
the health of the nation. There is a National Health
Policy 8 for the country, identifying a Central Health
Service 9 , with local State Policies 10 etc relevant
to each state within the country.
The main websites of interest to this project are
the Health and Family Welfare Department (which
can be reached from the Gujarat State Govern-
ment portal 11 ), while the Citizen Health pages of

• System integration of multiple technolo-

gies into a coherent solution tailored for
use with specific institutions.

• The technology solution has to be accom-

panied with a self-sustainable business
model to ensure long-term viability.

Figure 3. Solution Concept