CNCI has been chosen to become a Cancer Referral Center in the existing Telemedicine Program of West Bengal which already interconnects various Hospitals of the State. Under this program CNCI has been connected to through Fibreoptic State Wide Area Network (SWAN) via Leased and ISDN connectivity. Initially CNCI has been connected to the following 4 nodal centers under the West Bengal Telemedicine Project:
1.      Tamluk Sadar Hospital, Midnapore (E)
2.      Raigunj District Hospital, Uttar Dinajpur
3.      Arambag Sub-Divisional Hospital, Hooghly
4.      Darjeeling District Hospital, Darjeeling

In addition CNCI is connected to the following referral hospitals in West Bengal:
1.      School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata
2.      Calcutta Medical College, Kolkata
3.      Nilratan Sarkar Hospital, Kolkata
4.      North Bengal medical college & Hospital, Siliguri, Darjeeling District

A) CNCI-Telemedicine Consultations
CNCI-Telemedicine-Consultations functions 4-days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday) in Room No H-102, between 1 pm to 3 pm.

The following is the present departmental schedule

• Surgical Oncology - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
• Gynecologic Oncology - Monday, Thursday
• ENT-H&N Oncology - Wednesday, Thursday
• Medical Oncology - Monday, Friday
• Pathology - Monday, Thursday
• Radiation Oncology - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
• Radiodiagnosis - Wednesday, Friday

Specialists/Medical Officers from the above departments are available for at least two days per week. All HOD’s and Medical officers (hospital departments) have been provided a Training Program through Webel ECS. CME PROGRAMS & Telemedicine Video conferencing is to be started very soon on last Friday of every alternate month.

B) The ONCONET Telemedicine Project of the Govt. of India: (under implementation)

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India, has decided to include the provisions of Telemedicine as one of its core area of budgetary allocation. The ONCONET Telemedicine Program currently running successfully at RCC Thiruvananthapuram will be implemented on a nation wide basis. At the initial phase 25 RCC’s will be connected through satellite connectivity (VSAT) to form the ONCONET network.

Each RCC’s in turn will connect to 4 Nodal centers at the District Hospital level. It has been decided that CNCI will be connected to the following nodal centers in West Bengal under the ONCONET program:
1.      Barahampur New General Hospital, Murshidabad, PIN 742101
2.      Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital, Purulia, PIN 723101
3.      Raigunj District Hospital, Uttar Dinajpur, PIN 733134
4.      Darjeeling District Hospital, Darjeeling

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) involved with the ONCONET Program at RCC Thiruvananthapuram has been entrusted to take up the feasibility study in consultation with the RCCs. CNCI is presently working actively with CDAC with regard to fulfillment of its obligations as per the requirement criteria. Several visits by ONCONET to the Institute has take place and service providers like Reliance Infocom, BSNL, etc are presently doing the feasibility study.

The following are the objectives of the ONCONET Project:

• Teleconsulations
  1. Reduce crowd at the RCCs
  2. Early Detection
  3. Follow-up
  4. In-between consultations
• Telepathology
• Teleradiology
• Online appointments – Registration – Admissions
• Information exchange: Cancer Registry/Cancer Atlas
• Electronic Classroom: CME programs
• Coordination in research
• Sharing of expertise, resources and facilities whenever feasible and possible.
• Electronic Medical Records
• Digital Library
• Mobile telemedicine Unit
  

TO CONTACT (CNCI TELEMEDICINE PROJECT)

1. Dr Aniruddha Dam (Nodal Officer): 9831181185
2. Dr Suparna Majumdar: 9830081467
3. Dr Rup Kr. Saha: 9830045076