Srinagar: Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Governor UT J&K Thursday inaugurated a two day mid-term conference at SKIMS organized by the Department of Electronics, Communication/IT, SKIMS under the Aegis of Telemedicine Society of India.
Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar who was chief guest on the occasion in his address complemented SKIMS for pioneering services in Telemedicine. He said there needs to be more focus on telemedicine services in UT J&K attributing vast expansion in medical area. He also said that critical services need to be accessible in remote places and access to masses to various services in the telemedicine needs to be prioritized. He hoped that today’s event will provide us with better inputs and ideas to further improve upon the better patient care services.
Bhupinder, IAS, Secretary Health and Medical Education Govt. of J&K who was chief guest on occasion said UT J&K has many inaccessible areas and has made lot of strides to adopt to digital services and the general public has been provided satisfactory services like comprehensive call centers, mobile ambulances in remote areas. He further said IT solutions including hospital management system is going to revolutionize the functioning of hospitals. He underlined that user friendly technology can be significant in use of telemedicine services and emphasized on training/capacity building of practioners and said a lot more needs to be done to popularize telemedicine services to benefit common man. He also highlighted various services being provided under Ayushman Bharat Initiative in UT J&K including Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. He said times like COVID made adoption of technology much easier and brought greater work efficiency and the use of various applications generating sufficient data is helpful in strategizing policies for future to come.
Director SKIMS Prof. Parvaiz A. Koul complemented the organizing team and thanked Telemedicine Society of India for choosing SKIMS for the event and said that SKIMS is the only public hospital with well established Telemedicine Centre and said the department of Electronics and Communication/IT needs to be commended for their excellent work. He further said SKIMS recently digitized important service areas including patient registration, payment system, report access which has been well received by public and has facilitated patient care services here at SKIMS.
Prof. Tariq Gojwari, Dean Medical Faculty and organizing chairman, while speaking on the occasion gave a detailed account of Telemedicine services at SKIMS and said SKIMS is the only tertiary care center with well networked digital platform which has so far benefitted huge number of patients.
Prof. Prasanta Kumar Pradhan, President Telemedicine Society of India who joined online while addressing the audience said that it is the first mid-term conference organized by the Telemedicine Society of India in J&K. He emphasized on use of digital technology in health services. India has adopted to digital technology which has been a game changer and has brought greater accountability and accessibility in health care services, he added.
Er. Farooq Ahmed Wani, organizing secretary of event welcomed the guests and thanked Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar and other dignitaries for attending the event. He gave the detailed account of the activities of Telemedicine Society of India vis a vis Telemedicine services at SKIMS. He said Telemedicine Center at SKIMS is essential link in providing the best health care services particularly in various disaster situations. He thanked Director SKIMS for support and facilitating the event.
Dr. Murthy Remilla, Secretary TSI, Mr Vimal Vakhloo former president TSI also spoke on the occasion and Er. Parvaiz A Bhat co-organizing chairman, Chief Engineer SKIMS were also present on the event.
The event was attended by faculty SKIMS, faculty from other Institutions, Administrative staff and students.

KR Desk