ISRO has inked a Memorandam of Understanding (MOU) with four hospitals-Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi; Madras Diabetic Research Foundation, Chennai and Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation, Ambajogai (Maharashtra) to further expand its telemedicine network.

The MOU was signed at Antariksh Bhavan, Bangalore, the headquarters of ISRO by A Bhaskaranarayana, Director, Satellite Communications Programme, on behalf of ISRO and R Basil, Director and CEO, Manipal Health Systems; T Jagannathan, Chief Administrative Officer, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; Dr V Mohan, President and Director, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and Dr Arun Dawle, Executive President, Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation.

ISRO's satellite-based Telemedicine network, which started in 2001 on an experimental basis, links remote/rural district hospitals with super-specialty hospitals in major cities via INSAT. While ISRO provides the software, hardware and communication equipment and satellite bandwidth, the speciality hospitals provide the infrastructure, manpower and maintenance support. The telemedicine network now covers 165 hospitals which includes 132 remote/rural/district hospitals/health centres connected to 33 specialty hospitals in major cities.

ISRO Chairman, G Madhavan Nair said that several private speciality hospitals, besides State Government medical centres and NGOs, have been showing keen interest in establishing the telemedicine network to extend quality healthcare to the rural population.

The Indian Space major has also established a Village Resource Centres (VRC) in association with NGOs, trusts and state and central agencies.

The four hospitals are already engaged in extensive rural healthcare initiatives. Manipal Hospital at Bangalore has branches in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Sikkim catering rural patients. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi plans to integrate telemedicine at its adopted government community health centres in Haryana and Rajasthan through a scheme, "Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)," envisioned by President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Both Madras Diabetic Research Foundation and Dr Venkatrao Dawle Medical Foundation's have mobile telemedicine unit covering villages around Chennai and southern Maharashtra respectively.