ISRO brings more govt hospitals under telemedicine plan

VELLORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) proposes to bring more government hospitals in the country under its telemedicine programme, a top official said
today.
    
L Satyamurthy, Programme Director and Coordinator of Telemedicine programme said: "Our aim is to cover maximum distance in the near future so that the programme reaches
all."
    
The facilities should reach even a poor farmer in a remote village, he added while participating in a function at Christian Medical College (CMC) here.
    
Dr George Chandy, Director of CMC, said the telemedicine facilities via satellite has brought far-off medical services closer for the rural poor.
    
ISRO's telemedicine programme launched in 2001, aims at connecting the rural and district hospitals in the country with super speciality hospitals in the cities via INSAT.
    
While ISRO provides the software, hardware and communication equipment as well as satellite bandwidth, the speciality hospitals provide infrastructure and manpower. The programme covers 165 hospitals -- 132 centres connected to 33 speciality hospitals.
    
ISRO has established Village Resource Centres in association with NGOs, trusts and state and central agencies. It has also developed eight mobile units -- four of them
in Tamil Nadu, two in Kerala and two in Karnataka.
    
Six more mobile units would be set up in Rajasthan soon, Sathyamurthy said.