Interactive Meet on Telemedicine As a part of the inauguration of telemedicine facility at Imphal, a user interaction meet on telemedicine was also organised. The meet was attended by 365 delegates including doctors from district and private hospitals, personnel of the science and technology departments, state remote sensing centres and commissioners and directors of health of some of the North Eastern States. During the meet, presentations were made on concepts of telemedicine systems, ISRO's initiatives and experience, ISRO's plan for telemedicine in North Eastern region, and activities of North Eastern Space Applications Centre. The presence of doctors from super specialty hospitals and a panel discussion at the end of the meet were other significant highlights.

The telemedicine project for the North Eastern Region of India was inaugurated on February 5 at Imphal by the Governor of Manipur, Mr Arvind Dave. The North Eastern telemedicine project envisages establishing telemedicine facility at 72 district hospitals in the eight states of the region and linking them with super specialty hospitals like Asia Heart Foundation, Kolkata; Apollo Hospitals; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi; Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow; and Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.

Telemedicine facility has already been established in some of the remote district hospitals of North Eastern States of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Sikkim. The project is a joint venture between ISRO and the North Eastern Council under the Department of Development of North Eastern Region.

In yet another function organised at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore on February 10, the operational phase of the Karnataka Telemedicine project was inaugurated by the Karnataka Chief Minister Mr S M Krishna. Mr Satyabrata Mookherjee, Union Minister of State (Space) graced the occasion. In the past two years, the pilot project on Telemedicine in Karnataka has already provided more than 10,000 teleconsultations. In the operational phase, the Karnataka Telemedicine Project is expected to bring multi-specialty healthcare to a significant section of the rural population of Karnataka. This network would serve as a model for the utilisation of `HEALTHSAT' which is proposed for launch in the future.