ISRO's telemedicine network has got further fillip with the the launch of the operational phase of Karnataka Telemedicine Project and the inauguration of Telemedicine projects in West Bengal and the North East.

ISRO took up the initiative of telemedicine in the year 2001 to further expand the application of INSAT to newer areas with the specific aim of bringing in the expert medical facilities to the grassroots level population. Telemedicine helps to connect remote rural hospitals/health centres to super specialty hospitals located in the cities and helps patients in remote and rural areas to avail timely consultations from specialist doctors without the ordeal of travelling.

Telemedicine system consists of customised medical software integrated with computer hardware, along with medical diagnostic instruments connected to VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) at each location. In the past three years, ISRO's telemedicine network has expanded to connect 45 remote and rural hospitals and 15 super specialty hospitals. The remote/rural nodes include the offshore islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep, the mountainous and hilly regions of Jammu and Kashmir including Kargil & Leh, Medical College hospitals in Orissa and some of the rural/district hospitals in the mainland states. More than 12,500 patients have been provided with specialty tele-consultation and treatment so far.

(Left to Right) Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, Mr S M Krishna, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr Satyabrata Mookherjee, Minister of State (Space) and Mr Kagodu Thimmappa, Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka at the inauguration

In West Bengal, the Telemedicine Project which had started with connectivity between the district hospitals at Bankura and Siliguri with Asia Heart Foundation, Kolkata and Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, got further fillip with the inauguration of the connectivity between more hospitals by the Minister of State (Space), Mr Satyabrata Mookherjee on January 30, 2004 at Krishna Nagar. The District Hospital at Krishna Nagar in Nadia District, District Hospital, Malda and District Hospital, Balurghat in West Dinajpur district have now been connected with super specialty hospitals — Sri Ramakrishna Seva Prathistan Hospital, Kolkata and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.