It will provide connectivity to government and private hospitals in the country
VELLORE: The National Task Force on Telemedicine, set up by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, plans to establish a national grid on telemedicine to provide telemedicine connectivity through the satellite network of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to government and private hospitals, L. Sathyamurthy, Project Director of Antrix, the ISRO’s marketing division, said on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference at the teleconferencing room of the Christian Medical College Hospital here , Mr. Sathyamurthy, who is also Director of the National Telemedicine Programme, said Rajasthan had the biggest telemedicine network of 40 hospitals; it also had a State telemedicine grid. Karnataka too had a State grid.
In Tamil Nadu, the CMC Hospital, the Apollo Hospitals and Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital could be connected through a grid with the central depository.
CME network
The ISRO planned to promote a National Continuing Medical Education Network with the help of these institutions in Tamil Nadu. It sought the help of the Ministry of Health and the Departments of Information Technology and Communications for establishing the network, which would benefit medical students.
Mr. Sathyamurthy said all 33 district headquarters hospitals and six medical college hospitals in Rajasthan and six district headquarters hospitals each in Orissa and Maharashtra had been hooked to the telemedicine network.
Out of the eight mobile telemedicine hospitals operated and supported by the ISRO in the country, four were in Tamil Nadu promoted by the Madras Diabetic Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, SRMC Hospital, Chennai and Arvind Eye Hospital, Madurai. Two each were in Kerala and Karnataka. Six mobile telemedicine facilities would come up in Rajasthan and some in Maharashtra.
Through the 220 village resource centres promoted by the ISRO and administered by various non-governmental organisations in the country, the ISRO was offering a bouquet of services, including technical and marketing advice to farmers from the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. Two hundred more centres would come up in another one year, he said.
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