ranchi rapid advancements in technology including medical sciences are inspiring as well as frightening these generate optimism as well as apprehensions will man remain the master of technology and remain a social animal or will he become an electronic animal optimistic about technological advancements dr yogi mehrotra vice president of apollo hospitals group who was here in connection with the opening of a cath lab and cardiothoracic unit at aramapollo at irba says the next ten years will be health care decade also in ten years india will become a health care power just like it has become an information technology power over the last five years dr mehrotra talks of tele medicine internet will make it easier to seek second opinion within hours this should be possible within a year or two he also talks of robotic surgery a super speciality surgeon will operate the robot from a faroff city and perform minute surgical operations watching every detail on a screen in his chamber but he warns that health care is costly today it will become costlier still the reason is simple enough sophisticated equipment practically all being imports are very costly like the cath lab and cardiothoracic unit cost aramapollo irba in ranchi around rs 55 crore hence he advises insurance cover he wonders why is it that out of about 100 crore people in india only a small percentage about 20 lakh are covered by general insurance he believes about 40 crore can afford insurance like rs 2000 per annum as premium this would become handy in tackling costly treatment it will also mean more funds for more investments in health sector dr mehrotra also talks of information hubs at 150 places all over india visavis internet this will lead to open medical university he also talks of virtual medical university in collaboration with niit all these and much more are possible because of rapid advancements in information technology while dr mehrotra talks of these possible gains dr kk sinha an eminent neurophysician says we are in the middle of knowledge revolution which has broken caste barrier social barrier class barrier even a sleepy drowsy bihar is awakening to knowledge revolution dr sinha says information technology is changing the vocabulary that we use like doctors knew floppy as in floppy child syndrome in which a child suffering from hypotonic neurology problem cannot move his muscles or arms as a normal child but now floppy means a floppy disk in a computer but dr sinha warns that all developments all advancements would be meaningless unless the focus is on the society every man lives in a sort of network because he is a social animal he says but the recent technological advances are changing the very nature of social interactions and are threatening mans position as a social animal a man can interact with others while remaining confined to his room he says this does not augur well for the social institutions and healthy social life dr sinha