National Seminar on Medicine and IT & 3rd M.V.Arunachalam endowment oration

The novel use of the stupendous growth in information technology to serve neurologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals was discussed at IIT-Madras. The national seminar on medicine and IT started with Prof.Krishnamurthy Srinivas, senior consultant neurologist welcoming the gathering.

The pre-lunch session featured Dr.Uma Srinivasan, former- chief of health data integration committee, CSIRO; Australia sharing her experience on the global perspectives of health care and information technology at its interface. Prof.E.S.Krishnamoorthy, director The Institute of Neurological Sciences, VHS medical center, enlightened the crowd on how a common physician can be benefited from an integrative use of information technology in his/her practice. With an exemplary approach towards serving the rural community Prof.A.Jhunjunwala, TelNet group, IIT-M, made an impact of the current and future uses of IT benefiting a common man having an ailment. He enumerated on the-"CHIRAAG", a productive ongoing project that the Telnet group - IIT M has committed in its healthcare service to rural people.

With the advent of more satellite technology like EDUSAT the burden of learning processes has been simplified and made accessible even to remote villages. The support of such technology is also extended to medicine. Mr.P.Venkatesan, director and C.O.O, Healthtrack Info Solutions, Chennai shared his experience and gave the audience an insight of telemedicine and its uses. The crowd was able to gain more knowledge of the state-of- art integration of IT and medicine when Dr.Phil Kernerman, consultant in medicine and IT, Canada shared his experience. The intricacies with which Indian legal system governs the appropriate use of technology in handling patient data was delivered with precision by Mr.Vivek Kurien , advocate ,Sai Krishna associates ,New Delhi.

The various ethical issues that involved maintaining a patient database in a portal were enumerated by Dr.R.Prema, senior ophthalmologist Prem's eye clinic, Chennai. The video message shared by Sri.Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO gave the elite gathering authentic information of how the government supports such novel growth.

The launch of NeuroDbase, a unique customised electronic medical record, Neuropsychiatry Online, a joint effort by the Neurosciences India Group and IIT Madras to provide internet-based counseling to people living in rural areas and Pubmedinfo.com, a unique public portal for health- related information were released by Baskara Narayana, Director, Satellite Communication, Indian Space Research Organization. He delivered the 3rd M.V.Arunachalam endowment oration -"Space Technology for Bridging the Health Divide" on behalf of Sri.Madhavan Nair.

Eminent dignitaries who felicitated the function include,Mr.M.V. Murugappan andMr.Vellayan, trustees, Vellayan Chettiar trust, Murrugappa family and group, Dr.N.S.Murali, secretary, VHS, Prof .C.V.Krishnasami, head of the department , dept.of diabetology, VHS, Prof.M.S.Anant, director, IIT-Madras.