Soon, consult your kid's doc on his smart phone

Your child is ill and the paediatrician, only person you trust to treat your child, is an hour away, or worse still out of town. Soon, you wouldn't need to panic.

Your child is ill and the paediatrician, only person you trust to treat your child, is an hour away, or worse still out of town. Soon, you wouldn't need to panic. Just use your smart phone and set up a video-conference with the doctor for immediate consultation. He would be able to guide you, as the doctor would have your child's medical history uploaded on his phone.

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A paediatric website, www.pediatriconcall.com, is launching a patient management system that will enable sending a child's history including images of various test reports straight to a doctor's phone.

“The system should be in place in the next two months. With this application, a doctor need not be near his computer and can at least guide

parents at all times,” said Dr Ira Shah, editor of the website, who spoke at the Practical Pediatrics Update 2011 at Nehru Science Centre on Sunday.

About 450 paediatricians from across the country were at the conference to look at ways in which technology can be used to increase efficiency.

“Parents frantically call up during emergencies, but rather than hearing it from a parent, it would be more beneficial to get to see the child on a video call to assess the situation before further treatment,” said Dr Anand Shandilya, who runs a clinic in Jogeshwari.