Apollo Hospitals Group, pioneers of telemedicine, has teamed up with Common Services Centres (CSC), a scheme of the Union Government, to deliver healthcare to rural patients using telemedicine facilities.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Apollo Group and CSC under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology in Delhi, said a release. Apollo Hospitals started telemedicine 13 years back, in an effort to bring healthcare closer to patients of both urban and rural areas. Apollo Tele Health Services, a group company of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited, has signed a MoU with CSC.

This collaboration is aimed at providing primary, preventive and promotive healthcare through tele consultation to rural patients from telemedicine speciality centres situated within Apollo hospitals across various locations in the country and will run virtual clinics for patients using telemedicine technology. This is the first time in the country that healthcare services are being delivered using information and communication technology at such a large scale and magnitude.

Speaking on the occasion, Apollo Hospitals executive director Sangita Reddy said that the group planned to make healthcare available to more than 1,00,000 CSC centres using telemedicine platform under its Rural Connect programme.

The Common Services Centres Scheme, being the corner stone initiative through the National e-Governance plan of India, is a milestone achievement in creating a structured change agent for socially inclusive community action, according to CSC chief executive officer Dr Dinesh Kumar Tyagi.

Apollo Tele Health Services CEO Vikram Thaploo said the rural connect programme was designed to be socially relevant, financially sustainable and a scalable model. He also added that 112 centres were made operational under this tie-up.

Apollo Group launched the telemedicine in 1999 to offer patients a platform for evaluation by medical experts and doctors without having to be physically present at a clinic. Apollo Tele Health Services (ATHS) has emerged as India's single largest turnkey provider in the area of telemedicine.