WikiConference India 2011/Submissions/Medipedia

Timestamp
07:56, 5 August 2011 (UTC)
SubmissionID
WCIOR002
Title of the submission
Internet in Medicine and Medicine on internet - Exploring the tremendous possibilities
Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, presentation)
Presentation
Author of the submission
Dr. Mohit Goyal
E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)
dr.mohitgoyal@gmail.com
Country of origin (State if India is the country of origin)
India
Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
Goyal Hospital and Research Center, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Personal homepage or blog
www.goyalmohit.blogspot.com
Abstract (in 500 words)

Background
For long, doctors in developing countries like India have been considered technologically challenged. Although they have made ground, the lack of adequate acquaintance with computers and the internet has prevented many doctors from utilizing the tremendous information resource on the internet and contributing to it on a scale that justifies their huge potential. This handicap has prevented individual doctors from using cutting edge technology and electronic communication to provide a better health care experience to their patients.

Objectives

  • Ways to bring doctors towards technology, so that they can effectively utilize the information on the web; and use technology to improve the quality of and add value to the services they provide.
  • Ways to make it easy for the doctors to contribute to the knowledge and information database on the web; and exploring how Wiki can help.

Methods

  • Interactions with doctors to find out the difficulties they face in using technology in their daily lives and their profession.
  • Interactions with doctors to find out how willing they are to contribute to the medical resources on the net.
  • Interactions with doctors who are using technology to their and patients’ advantage. (To look for solutions and explore possibilities).
  • Interactions with teachers in non-professional government colleges to find, how helpful has the government’s initiative to acquaint them with technology been. (To find out if it can be used in the medical community).

Conclusions
Lack of time to learn was the most common reason given by the doctors for them not being able to use technology. Technological education has to be brought to their neighborhoods at least, if not to their offices. Since doctors are a community that can add a lot of value to the information database, dedicated solutions need to be found to make it easy for them to contribute online. While finances are not a hurdle in learning “how to” for most doctors, there is a lack of will because they are not aware of the tremendous possibilities through technology. Technology providers partnering with medical associations can provide the answer to this, by way of presentations at conferences and seminars.

Track (Community/Knowledge/Outreach/Technology)
Outreach
Will you attend Wikiconference if your submission is not accepted?
Would like to
Slides or further information (optional)