Applicability of Telemedicine in Bangladesh: Current Status and Future Prospects

Telemedicine refers to the use of information and communication technology to provide and support health caremainly for the purpose of providing consultation. It is also a way to provide medical procedures and examinations to remotelocations. It has the potential to improve the accessing to quality health care services and delivery while lowering costs evenin the places with scarcity of resources. Understanding the potentiality of telemedicine, many developing countries areimplementing it to provide health care facility to remote areas where health care facilities are poor. Bangladesh is not anexception to this either. In this paper we mention the reasons why Bangladesh has to move for telemedicine. We also presentthe past and on-going telemedicine activities and projects in Bangladesh. Analyzing these projects we have found out somefactors which should be assessed carefully for successful implementation of telemedicine application. Considering Bangladeshtelecommunication infrastructure, finally we propose a prototype telemedicine network that can improve health facilitiesthrough telemedicine by making a connection between rural health facility providers and special hospitals