By Our Staff Reporter
Rishikesh, 31 Aug: AIIMS Rishikesh rapidly expanded its ICU services to more than 200 beds to provide critical care to severely ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, AIIMS Rishikesh has partnered with King’s College London (KCL) to launch a pioneering new project for the first time in India to deliver quality care to a large number of critically ill patients through Tele-ICU, by which doctors at AIIMS can simultaneously run multiple virtual e-ICUs and also communicate with international experts.
King’s College London has vast experience in this area and is already running a similar project called Life Lines UK in over 180 NHS hospitals across UK. It was set up by a team comprising Professor Louise Rose, a Professor of Critical Care Nursing at King’s College, London, Dr Joel Meyer, a critical care doctor at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, London, and Michel Paquet. British Telecom has donated 50 4G enabled tablet computers to AIIMS-Rishikesh along with secure software for this purpose.
Prof Ravi Kant, Director and CEO of AIIMS Rishikesh, inaugurated the Tele-ICU services, here, today. He said, “This offer of international expertise and support is hugely welcome. AIIMS Rishikesh has developed many such international collaborations over the past 3 years, and also appointed a Dean of Innovation to develop such new technologies to help poor patients in remote areas without access to healthcare.”
Prof Manoj Gupta, Dean, stressed upon the importance of implementing newer technology in patient care. Dr DK Tripathy, Vice Dean (Innovation), outlined the implementation of the service and role of this technology in helping India fight the impending third wave of COVID pandemic.
Dr KS Rajkumar and Dr Yogesh Bahurupi, the nodal officers of Tele ICU at AIIMS Rishikesh, thanked the experts for their support. Prof Prokar Dasgupta, Professor of Surgery at King’s College London, said, “Life Lines has been an incredible success in the UK. It has removed barriers and brought families and loved ones together at the most difficult of times, when lives hang in the balance. We are in the extremely privileged position that our NHS staff have access to the latest insights and research that can make all the difference to the survival of patients who have COVID-19.” He said that his participation in the VAIBHAV 2020 Summit organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and effect of COVID on his family had motivated him to do more for India.”
The Tele-ICU services were inaugurated in the presence of Prof UB Mishra, Dean (Hospital Affairs), Prof Somprakas Basu, Dean (International Affairs), and Prof Vartika Saxena, Dean (Research), from AIIMS Rishikesh; Prof Louise Rose, Dr Joel Meyer and Joesph Casey from King’s College London; Michel Paquet from Aetonix Canada and a team from British Telecom UK and India.
