The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Country's first global meet on telemedicine

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Country's first global meet on telemedicine

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 15. In a move aimed at shortening the distance between patients and doctors, it is proposed to combine the health and information sectors, by mid-March.

Between March 17 and 19, the country will join a small band of nations which have held international conferences on tele-health.

The country's first international conference on telemedicine will be held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore then.

The Intelmedindia 2005 (www.intelmedindia2005.com) , organised by the Astronautical Society of India is jointly sponsored by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Information Technology and Rural Development and the Department of Science and Technology. From electronic medical records to universal health insurance, e-education to sophisticated tele-surgery, e-health has grown covering almost every aspect of the sectors, K. Ganapathy, chairman, scientific committee said.

"Telemedicine will level the playing field, giving both physicians and patients access to medical knowledge that was once the protected domain of those who had graduated from medical school," he said.

The ISRO has already initiated space-based telemedicine and the network covers about 75 hospitals in remote areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshwadeep Islands and the North East. Hospitals in remote and tribal areas are networked with speciality and superspeciality hospitals in major Indian cities, thereby enabling the patients in these areas to access quality health care at low costs.

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