The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan recently launched the National Teleconsultation Centre (CoNTeC) .

• The project CoNTeC, an acronym for COVID-19 National Teleconsultation Centre, has been conceptualised by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and has been implemented by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
• The CoNTeC is a Telemedicine Hub established by AIIMS, New Delhi, wherein expert doctors from various clinical domains will be available 24×7 to answer the multifaceted questionsfrom specialists from all over the country.
• It is a multi-modal telecommunications hub through which 2 way audio-video and text communications can be undertaken from any part of the country as well as the world at large.
• The modes of communication will include simple mobile telephony as well as two way video communications, using WhatsApp, Skype and Google Duo.
• The CoNTeC is also fully integrated with the National Medical College Network (NMCN) to conduct a full fledged Video Conference (VC) between the 50 Medical Colleges connected through the NMCN with its National Resource Centre located at SGPGI, Lucknow.
• The patient management advice offered will be standardized as per the national guidelines supplemented protocols developed by the team at AIIMS, nominated by the Director, AIIMS.
• CoNTeC has been made operational at AIIMS with a view to connect the Doctors across the country to AIIMS in real time for treatment of the COVID-19 patients.  
• The Doctors would be available in the facility 24X7 and to keep it operational 24 hrs.The boarding and lodging facility is also made availablefor the Doctors manning it.
•  It has been set up in the AIIMS so that the small states should also make use of the vast experience of the Doctors at AIIMS.

The telemedicine guidelines have also been notified by the Government of India and with the help of digital platform and technology, the public at large will get the benefit not only for COVID- 19 but other diseases also.

How to Contact the National Teleconsultation Centre CoNTeC?

A single mobile number (+91 9115444155) can be dialled from anywhere in the coutnry/world by COVID-19 treating doctors to reach the CoNTeC which has six lines that can be used simultaneously at present. This number of lines can be increased in future if needed. The incoming calls will be picked up by the CoNTeC Managers, who will then handover the call to the appropriate expert doctors from the clinical domains as desired by the calling specialists managing the COVID-19 cases anywhere in the country.

The Managers will guide the callers in establishing a two way video call using the WhatsApp, Skype or Google Duo as preferred by the caller. The callers from the NMCN network can connect anytime using the Telemedicine infrastructure at their end.