The Hindu : Front Page : Telemedicine project launch in October

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Sunday, Sep 17, 2006
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Telemedicine project launch in October

C. Maya

Six medical colleges, 10 district hospitals, two superspecialty centres to be linked

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: T he telemedicine project of the State, linking six of its medical colleges, 10 district hospitals and two super-specialty referral centres, is expected to be commissioned in October.

A joint venture of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the State Government, the Tele Health and Medical Education (TH&ME) Project is expected to give better healthcare options to people in far-flung areas through tele-consultation services with specialist hospitals.

The telemedicine network will also help doctors in rural areas keep themselves up-to-date, as continuing medical education programmes and surgical procedures from operation theatres can be relayed through satellite to peripheral centres.

ISRO already has a satellite-based telemedicine network, ISRO NET, which links 17 super-specialty hospitals in the country to 48 remote or district hospitals. The TH&ME project will become part of this network. The OncoNET of the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) and the telemedicine network of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi with Lakshadweep are also part of ISRO NET.

The TH&ME project is an extension of a pilot project that ISRO launched in September 2004, when the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, was connected to the General Hospital, Pathanamthitta, with the help of VSAT (very small aperture terminals). During Sabarimala pilgrimage seasons, a temporary peripheral node is set up at Pampa, and this service has been helping authorities handle medical emergencies. The telemedicine nodes at the two hospitals can be connected to any super-specialty hospital on the ISRO NET. For the past two years, the medical college has been offering tele-consultation services and continuing medical education programmes to several hospitals in the Northeast, especially in Shillong and Nagaland; the Army hospital in Siachen; Jammu and Kashmir Medical College and a hospital in Leh-Ladakh.

The proposed TH&ME project intends to link the medical college hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kottayam, Kozhikode and Pariyaram; the Regional Cancer Centre; and the Sri Chitra Medical Centre to hospitals in districts where there are no medical colleges.

Connectivity

The ISRO NET employs the Extended C band transponder on INSAT 3A, located at 93.5 E longitude. The network is at present operating with a hub at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network, Bangalore.

The TH&ME project will be on this network, but with an independent hub at the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala at Technopark. The institute will act as the server for transmitting medical education programmes, including live broadcast from operation theatres.

The 384 kbps bandwidth for the network is being provided free of cost for the first five years by ISRO. This bandwidth will enable simultaneous sessions of two continuing medical education programmes and four tele-consultation services. This means that four district hospitals in the network can connect to the medical college or the Sri Chitra centre at the same time.

The telemedicine equipment, VSATs and free satellite bandwidth is being provided by ISRO, while the other infrastructure requirements will be met by the State Government.

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