ISRO’s
Telemedicine Network
to Expand Further
ISRO’s Telemedicine network is being further expanded with the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) on May 16, 2006 with four specialty hospitals — Manipal Hospital, Bangalore; Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi; Madras Diabetic Research Foundation, Chennai and Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation, Ambajogai (Maharashtra). These MOUs were signed at Antariksh Bhavan, Bangalore, the headquarters of ISRO by Mr A Bhaskaranarayana, Director, Satellite Communications Programme, on behalf of ISRO and Mr R Basil, Director and CEO, Manipal Health Systems; Mr T Jagannathan, Chief Administrative Officer, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; Dr V Mohan, President and Director, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and Dr Arun Dawle, Executive President, Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation. Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO was present during the signing ceremony.
ISRO’s satellite based Telemedicine network, which started in 2001 on an experimental basis, is aimed at linking remote/rural district hospitals with super-specialty hospitals in major cities via INSAT. While ISRO provides software, hardware and communication equipment as well as satellite bandwidth, the specialty hospitals provide infrastructure, manpower and maintain the system. ISRO’s telemedicine network has now matured into an operational system and now covers 165 hospitals – 132 remote/rural/district hospitals/health centres connected to 33 specialty hospitals located in major cities.
ISRO’s telemedicine programme is an example of societal orientation of Indian space programme and with several private specialty hospitals besides state governments and NGOs showing keen interest in establishing the telemedicine network, augurs well to the cause of extending quality healthcare to the rural population. Efforts are also being made by ISRO to include telemedicine through Village Resource Centres (VRC) which are being set up in association with NGOs, trusts and state and central agencies.
|
Dignitaries
from specialty hospitals with Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman,
|
Of the four hospitals that signed MOU with ISRO, Manipal Hospital has its head office in Bangalore with branches in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Sikkim catering to the needs of rural patients. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital of New Delhi is adopting government community health centers at taluk level in Haryana and Rajasthan. This hospital is already planning to integrate telemedicine in VRCs in these states and it is also active in the scheme “Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)” envisioned by the President of India. The Madras Diabetic Research Foundation has set up a mobile telemedicine unit to visit various villages around Chennai while Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation’s mobile telemedicine unit covers rural population of southern Maharashtra.
