KARACHI The US Department of State along with IBM and a team of partners have successfully implemented a remote telemedicine system in Pakistan.

An IBM statement issued said that with plans to expand the system over time, the team has established a central coordinating hospital or hub located at the Holy Family Hospital in the northern city of Rawalpindi, Punjab Province.

It said that the team members include Medweb, Inc., Motorola, Wateen Communications, the Pakistan Ministry of Information Technology, and doctors from Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi Pakistan.

The statement pointed out that the Telemedicine delivers high quality medical services at the point of need and at an affordable cost, giving medical specialists and primary care givers timely text and medical image information via electronic communication as enabled by the Internet.

Moving information instead of people, it provides healthcare consultation and education for both patients and care providers healthcare that would otherwise be lacking or absent in remote locations without sufficient availability of medical specialists.

The statement further pointed out that Pakistan stands to benefit greatly from this state-of-the-art telemedicine system.

More than 75 percent of Pakistanis live in rural regions, but they benefit from fewer than 15 percent of all hospital beds. Only 22 percent of all the countrys physicians work in rural areas, where delivery of healthcare services to the most remote areas is the biggest challenge.

Further, modest economic growth generates lower healthcare spending than in developed countries, and Pakistan has been unable to build new hospitals or provide specialist services to communities in these regions.

The ratio of residents to doctors today stands at 1,555 to one, and where specialists are concerned, that ratio is an alarming 12,800 to one. In such areas as dermatology, radiology and psychiatry, Pakistan has only 450 specialists to cover the entire country.

To support the new telemedicine system, Pakistans Ministry of Information Technology has offered to provide free satellite connectivity for the first three years of the telemedicine project.

In addition, Motorola and Wateen Communications have rolled out WiMAX coverage across Pakistan that is currently being used between the District Hospital in Attock the first spoke hospital -- and Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi.

The satellite communications provides a valuable back-up option for the telemedicine practitioners and patients.

Leveraging the low-cost, ubiquitous power of the Internet to connect hub hospitals to what will be an increasing number of spoke clinics in rural regions, the new system can in turn access and engage the help of medical experts working at some of the most elite medical institutions in Pakistan as well as around the world.