Telemedicine-Based Tobacco Treatment Model in Primary Care from a Low-Resource Setting

• Main Authors: Kumar Thamaraiselvan Santhosh, Mani Bhushan Pant, Fareed Uzzafar, Narayana Manjunatha, C. Naveen Kumar, Suresh Bada Math
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2019-10-01
• Series: Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice
• Subjects: tobacco; nicotine; addiction; dependence; primary care; telemedicine; india
• Online Access: http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0039-3399605

Tobacco addiction is one of the leading causes of premature mortality. Early and effective intervention in primary care, though possible and feasible, is seldom done in India. This case series describes the diagnosis and management of three patients of tobacco addiction by a primary care doctor (PCD) who is being trained in digitally driven four modules based “Primary Care Psychiatry Program” of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, India. This article discusses about the way in which two modules (telepsychiatric on-consultation training and collaborative video consultation) helped a primary care doctor (M.B.P.) working approximately 1,500 miles away from an academic institute to treat tobacco dependence at a rural primary health center of India.