Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 (IANS): UST Global, Kerala's largest IT employer, Monday, unveiled an advanced telemedicine application to help treatment of patients in remote locations, developed in collaboration with Mumbai-based Balabhai Nanavati Hospital's telemedicine centre and BlackBerry India

Conceptualized by Pavan Kumar, head of department of cardiovascular surgery and telemedicine centre, at Nanavati hospital, in collaboration with BlackBerry India, this application helps to eliminate distance barriers and to improve access to medical specialists that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities.

"This collaboration reinforces our continued focus towards improving the health and wellbeing of India by providing reduction in expenditures of rural patients' treatments," said Kumar on the occasion.

In this application, the remote clinic staff enters the visiting patients' demographics, vital signs, illness details, preliminary diagnosis information, and uploads existing medical reports.

The assigned doctor reviews the patient details and performs consultation with the patient remotely using a video session launched through BlackBerry Messenger (BBMTM).

He then provides the final opinion and uploads the prescription via the application. The remote clinic staff downloads and hands over a printed copy of the prescription to the patient.

"This telemedicine mobile application will reduce the urban-rural divide to support inclusive growth. We believe it will transform the way healthcare services are made available to rural communities and address two major challenges - that of access to qualified doctors and affordable treatment without the need for patients to travel to cities," said Gilroy Mathew, general manager, Asia, UST Global.

UST Global will make the application available on other mobile platforms and integrate with various medical devices, he said.