The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will link up Afghanistan with New Delhi for telemedicine services before mid-2005. The tele-med link between the two capital cities of Kabul and New Delhi will have the hub located at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). This will be the first ever-international tele-med link for ISRO.
Right now, efforts are on to procure the required systems for Kabul installation and extension of the facility to other regions of Afghanistan are also being worked out. The logistics are being devised in detail as the region is remote and far-flung. Hence basic infrastructure, communication links and state-of-the-art equipment are required to be ascertained before the link-up. All necessary interactions are on with the High Commission and the government of Afghanistan," according to G Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO.
The panel of doctors and communication technicians will be trained to make use of the system and interface with the medical experts at AIIMS, he added.
ISRO is open to the offer of providing treatment via telemedicine link even to inaccessible regions of the SARRC countries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives Bangladesh, and Nepal. But this would depend only if the countries show interest and take the initiatives to approach ISRO, stated the ISRO chief.
Meanwhile, back home ISRO is also toying with the possibility of entering into a public-private partnership in telemedicine connectivity through village resource centres.
In India, ISRO has so far invested Rs.10crore for the telemedicine project, which covers 100 hospitals and 20 super-speciality hospitals. The funds are used for purchase of basic equipment, training and connectivity. The tele med link is provided at around 80 remote district medical centres including North East, Leh, Port Blair and Chamarjanagar in Karnataka. Among the super speciality medical facilities involved in the project are Apollo Hospital in Chennai, Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore, AIIMS in New Delhi, PGI Lucknow, SRMC at Chennai and AIMS (Amrutha Institute of Medical Sciences) Hospital in Kochi. Nearly one-lakh patients in the remote parts of the country have been benefited with the medical consultations via telemedicine link.
Following the demand for telemedicine in the rural areas, ISRO is working out the modalities to connect district government hospitals in the country. Through 97 terminals it will link up Karnataka, all districts of Rajasthan, Jharkhand and 10 districts of Chattisgarh. In Karnataka, ISRO will link up 27 districts medical centres, which include government hospitals, and primary health centres.
The telemedicine link at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) is connected to all district level hospitals, which would allow at least 90 per cent of the mental disorder treatment to be carried out at the district level and later at the taluk level.
Beginning from March 17 to 19, ISRO will play host to an International Telemedicine Conference India to be held at Bangalore. The three-day symposium will discuss viable commercial model to use telemedicine facilities.
Nearly 500 delegates from all over the globe will congregate to deliberate on relevant topics to make telemedicine the answer for remote access health care. Sixty 60 scientific papers will be presented by experts.