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Devy Shetty, otherwise known as the Robin Hood of India, to take part in the healthworkshop at the Bilbao World Summit

The Indian cardiologist Devi Shetty, also known as the Robin Hood of India because of the free treatment he provides to poor patients, will be taking part in the workshop on the use of new communication technologies in healthcare at the World Summit of Cities and Regions on the Information Society to be held in Bilbao this month.

By improving the quality of life of both patients and healthcare professionals alike, the new information technologies have revolutionised the field of health.

As an information channel, e-Health has greatly enhanced people’s well-being by encouraging healthier lifestyles. As a working tool it allows data to be cross-referenced thereby leading to more comprehensive diagnoses and has also led to improvements in patient monitoring and the way in which health centres are run.

Thanks to the Internet, patients do not have to travel to seek medical care and can be monitored at all times (using telealarm systems that notify doctors/carers of accidents and telemonitoring systems that monitor their vital signs), all of which gives them greater peace of mind.

Thanks to the new information technologies, healthcare professionals now enjoy easy, direct access to scientific databases that help them diagnose illnesses. Furthermore, now that the Internet has removed the physical barriers separating health centres around the globe, the results of medical analyses can now be compared and analysed simultaneously by specialists all over the world.

Finally, the Internet has helped health centres improve their administrative procedures and make them more flexible. By saving both resources and time, e-Health means more resources can be allocated to other areas.

All these aspects will be discussed at one of the workshops at the 2nd World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society taking place in Bilbao on 9-11 November.

The most prominent participant in the workshop on e-Health will be Devi Shetty, the director of the Narayana Hrudayalaya heart hospital in southern India. Dr Shetty is one of the founders of this pioneering hospital which provides medical care to anyone who needs it, regardless of their religion, race or caste. Even those unable to pay for an operation receive treatment at this specialist heart centre and it is for this reason that Shetty, who worked alongside Mother Teresa of Calcutta for many years, is now known as the Robin Hood of India. In the view of medical analysts, the Narayana Hospital offers a level of healthcare superior to that of many similar centres in the USA. Dr Shetty, who carried out the very first heart transplant operation in India, specialises in heart care for children and has successfully operated on thousands of youngsters.

The e-Health workshop will be chaired by Julio César Pereyra, the president of FLACMA, the largest organisation of cities and municipalities in Latin America. Mr Pereyra is responsible for introducing a number of major health-related programmes in his country, Argentina, such as an infant mortality prevention plan and another aimed at monitoring the health of babies in their first year. His highest-profile project to date was the so-called “Ticket of Shame”, a road safety awareness programme for children that named and shamed adults guilty of careless driving.

Also attending the e-Health workshop, to be held on 10 November (day two of the World Summit) will be experts such as Line Kleinebreil, the president of the International Diabetes Network, and Ousmane Ly, a healthcare plan coordinator from Mali.