BANGALORE: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with government hospitals for introducing telemedicine connectivity linking it to all district hospitals, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said on Thursday.

Speaking at the inauguration of the telemedicine system of the Indian Air Force at the Command Hospital, he said, ISRO was working on developing a Radar Imaging Satellite with all weather capability by 2007. The new satellite was being designed in such a manner that it would help researchers get clearer images of earth even in cloudy weather conditions. He said it would be of immense help to farmers.

Mr. Nair said ISRO, in association with the State Government, was planning to extend the EDUSAT programme to 800 schools in Gulbarga district. At present, 885 primary schools in Chamarajnagar district were being covered by the project.

Air Marshal P. Bandopadyaya, Director-General of Medical Services, IAF, said the development and implementation of IAF Telemedicine System had been planned in two phases. In the first phase that was inaugurated on Thursday, telemedicine connectivity between the hospital in Bangalore and zonal Air Force Hospitals at Jorhat in Assam and Halwara in Punjab had been established.

She said the remaining nine IAF hospitals and about 30 peripheral medical centres would be linked to telemedicine facility at the Command Hospital in the second phase of the project. The feasibility of connecting IAF hospitals with major civil hospitals/medical research institutes across the world would be explored in the future.

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