With eight of the top 10 US hospitals and 13 leading pharma companies using its solutions, Polycom is transforming the way organisations teach and deliver healthcare globally. Alok Anand, Head Marketing, India & SAARC, Polycom, talks to Monalisa, ENN, about the scenario in India.

Give us an overview of the solutions offered by Polycom for the healthcare sector?
Our focus lies in visual collaboration that enables the healthcare community to support patient centered care and remote consultations, independent of geographic locations. Two of our leading solutions are RealPresence Experience (RPX) which offers the experience of real-life, faceto- face interaction in an all-inclusive video wall and Open Telepresence Experience (OTX) which offers vibrant video, audio and content collaboration in an immersive environment.
Image quality is absolutely nonnegotiable in healthcare. Therefore, we have systems which are high definition using less bandwidth, have high speed and are specifically designed to zoom into details.

While major hospitals and pharma companies are deploying your solutions worldwide, what is the scenario in India?
Most private and large hospitals in India are choosing teleconferencing solutions, but for generic applications, such as general meetings, collaborations and administration purposes. They are not yet deploying them for telemedicine or delivery of healthcare services. The demand and usability for telemedicine solutions still need to be generated. And this is mainly because its a new concept that requires change of mindset. Moreover, hospitals do not have large IT departments and their initial focus on technology is getting the equipments in place. Actual utilisation of core technology comes much later.

But do you see any scope for change?
Definitely. There is need for video collaboration both in government as well as private hospitals. Government hospitals focus on serving large number of patients with limited infrastructure and resources. On the other hand, private hospitals aspire to reach out to patients beyond geography and boundaries and utilise their specialists more. In both the cases, the answer lies in videoconference solutions. It offers a big scope for medical tourism too. Pre-procedure consultation and post procedure care and follow-up can be handled through video collaboration, thus ensuring continuity in healthcare for overseas patients. Video is a great alternative in times of crisis.

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