Pitfalls Of Tele-ECG Consultation In A Rural Setup

Abstract

Rural hospitals in India are manned by MBBS doctors who are trained to provide primary care and to run and monitor the National Programs mainly.  These doctors are now witnessing increasing numbers of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients at primary level.  They are not competent enough to diagnose ACS on their own even by looking at ECG. In an Indian council of medical research funded project, we provided the rural doctors with Tele-ECG facility. During the course of this project, we came across some pitfalls of Tele-ECG in rural setup.  One such case was diagnosed with ST-elevated myocardial infarction, while it turned out to be a perforated duodenal ulcer. We have rerported the case and briefly discussed the expected pitfalls for Tele-ECG in a rural setup.