CHENNAI: How easy would it be if figuring out a treatment plan for cancer could be both affordable and quick? Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), the not-for-profit Cancer hospital (Mumbai) is the bearer of good news for all those who ever dreamt of getting a consultation with a few mouse-clicks.
By putting your medical documents online and getting comprehensive consultation, you can now be saved from the hassles of flying out to another city or minting big sums for a consultation.
And it’s as simple as uploading your medical documents and waiting between three to seven days for TMC to send you a detailed written medical opinion backed by medical evidence, guidelines, experts while remembering to consider patient preferences.
The hospital sees almost 43,000 new patients every year from across India, South Asia, Middle-East and Africa, who also send in tonnes of emails queries and seek e-consultations.
The volume coupled with the increasing number of cancer patients catered to by India, is on the rise.
But it’s hard to reach out to all, going by the number of oncologists in the country (mostly spotted in cities), who shockingly enough, only number in few hundreds.
At this juncture, the web-based platform seeks to manage this number and offer on-screen solutions without compromising on quality. By giving access to patients and care-givers who can consult experts and access previous opinions offered to patients with similar issues, the hysteria behind decision-making is efficiently halved.
“There are two major problems faced by patients in India and globally — access to care and cost-effective medicine. TMC Online addresses this issue by making consultations with TMC experts accessible to everyone,” says Dr Rajendra A Badwe, director, Tata Memorial Centre. TMC Online integrates the niche tech provided by Navya Network, to provide this service free of cost to people Below Poverty Line and at a cost of Rs 5,000 in case of Indian patients and 100 dollars for international patients.