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PGI to offer telemedicine in subcontinent

Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss confers a degree on a student during the 29th Convocation of PGIMER in Chandigarh on Friday.

CHANDIGARH: “The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) has been chosen as one of the super-speciality institutes for implementation of telemedicine programme in SAARC countries,” announced Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee while delivering the 29th Convocation address at PGIMER on Friday. The event was presided over by Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

Telemedicine refers to the use of electronic communication technologies to provide clinical care, especially in remote areas. Hitherto, PGIMER was offering telemedicine services only within Punjab. Mr. Mukherjee said at the convocation that, “The MoU has been signed and telemedicine services would begin this year in Bhutan and Sri Lanka.”

Emphasizing the importance of quality health care amongst the poor people Mr. Mukherjee said, “The 10th Plan allocation for health was Rs.42,000 crore. The 11th Plan envisages tripling the allocation.”

Praising the PGIMER faculty the Minister said, “Since the faculty is amongst the best in India I would urge the doctors to focus their energies on answering the health needs of this country as we need lot more grass-roots research on the epidemiology of our diseases, on infections, on nutrition and its interaction with disease processes, on simplified treatment regimens, and so on.”

Earlier the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss had related the recent achievements of National Rural Health Mission. He said that the National School Health Programme, National Trauma Programme, Urban Health Mission and Cancer Programme were few of the programmes that were in the pipeline to improve the health of both urban and rural people.

Dr. Ramadoss urged the students to “work for the poor in India instead of working for the poor in USA.” He said that “All roads lead to India,” adding that over 250,000 patients come to India each year for a variety of medical treatments.

PGIMER Director Dr. K.K.Talwar said that a number of new academic programmes and infrastructures had been introduced in the “The Advanced Eye Centre, Bone Marrow Transplant Centre, Burns Unit, New ICUs for Liver and Lung Diseases, Drug De-addiction Centre, Regional Cancer Centre, Urology Centre and School of Public Health are significant new additions. The PET Scan and Gamma Knife Facilities will be functional in the next few months. The Advanced Cardiac Centre, Advanced Trauma Centre and computerization of the institute are all in advanced stages of completion. An Advanced mycology centre and bioinformatics cell has been established. For furthering basic medical research, a new air conditioned animal house is nearing completion. A new facility for stem cell research has been established.”

287 students were awarded degrees at the convocation; these degrees include Ph.D. in various specialities. Five students were honoured with medals for their meritorious performance. The Major General Amir Chand Gold Medal was awarded to Dr S.Ventakaseshan in the category of MD/MS/DM/M.Ch. and Dr Tranum Kaur in the category of Ph.D. for the year 2007. V.K.Saini Gold Medal was awarded to Dr Kavitha Kothur for the year 2007. The R. Nath Gold Medal in the field of biomedical sciences was awarded to Dr Rohit Sharma for the year 2007. The Aikat Memorial Gold Medal was awarded to Ms. Zeenia for the year 2007.

Administrator UT and Governor Punjab Gen. Rodrigues, Governor of Haryana Dr. A.R. Kidwai, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Adviser to Minister of Health and Family Welfare and former Director General, ICMR Prof. N.K. Ganguly, former Directors, Deans, Emeritus Professors were also present on the occasion.

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