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State to extend telemedicine facilities

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa government has decided to extend telemedicine facilities to 22 districts more during the current financial year.

At a high-level meeting chaired by Health Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey and attended by director of telemedicine programme of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) L. S Satyamurthi here on Saturday, it was resolved that three medical college hospitals would be connected with 10 district headquarter hospitals each through the telemedicine.

The State Government was providing Rs. 1 crore annually for the programme and the rest amount would be funded through National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Mr. Pandey said.If the attempt of connecting district headquarters hospitals became successful, in the next phase blocks, community health centers and public health centres would be linked through telemedicine system, he said. The health secretary asked to constitute a managing committee which would dedicatedly supervise programmes being undertaken under the telemedicine scheme.

Mr. Satyamurthi assured that ISRO would extend all helps for expansion and strengthening of telemedicine activities in the State.

Telemedicine activities were initiated in the State in the year 2001 with support from Department of Information Technology of Union government and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, a State health department release said here on Saturday.

Subsequently in the same year ISRO came forward with an offer to establish a telemedicine network which was accepted by Orissa.

In phase I Orissa Telemedicine Network was established in 2003 that connected all the three government medical colleges to Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow through Satellite-based VSAT connectivity, it said.

Till now 1,347 patients have been benefited out of the telemedicine programme.

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