The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Telemedicine extends reach

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Saturday, Apr 05, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Telemedicine extends reach

Staff Reporter

It will cover an additional 14 districts

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Spreading out: (From right) Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao; Chairman ISRO G. Madhavan Nair; and Director SATCOM and Scientific Secretary ISRO, at the workshop in Bangalore on Friday.

Bangalore: ISRO Chairperson G. Madhavan Nair, said here on Friday that telemedicine would now reach out to more districts in the State.

Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a workshop on telemedicine, Dr. Nair said that the second phase of the Karnataka Telemedicine project, an ISRO initiative, was inaugurated on Friday to reach 14 additional districts. Launched in 2001, the project covered 12 districts of the State in its first phase. “There is still a phenomenal task ahead: if we have to reach even 10 per cent of India’s 600,000 villages, we will need 60,000 such centres,” he added. “A single agency at the Centre will not be able to handle this task; we will need the support of the State Governments,” he said. Recently, Rs. 141 lakh was released by the State Government as corpus fund for the Telemedicine Trust of Karnataka for 2007-08, said S. Prakash, Joint Director, (Medical), Directorate of Health and Family Welfare. The trust, formed in 2006, is chaired by the Secretary, Health and Family Welfare.

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