Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is now all set to offer tele-ophthalmology service. It has called upon Narayana Nethralaya to take on the onus of linking up with the remote villages in the country to offer genetic eye disorders to control blindness in the country.

The space major has now provided the telemedicine facility to over 50 hospitals in the country to link across the remote and inaccessible villages to offer healthcare services. “Now we would extend all this support to help start the tel-ophthalmology service in the North East region. Narayana Nethralaya could approach ISRO in interacting with the experts to chart out a programme in the next one or two months for the pilot initiative to take off, said ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan.

The ISRO chairman at the inauguration of the two day conference on Recent Advances in Ophthalmic Genetics and Gene Therapy at the Narayana Nethralaya said that the ISRO is looking to offer tele-ophthalmology service to hospitals in the country to prevent blindness. This will see doctors, nurses and mid-wives to undertake simple screening process in the villages on pregnant women to detect genetic eye disorders. This effort will go a long way to prevent the blindness in the country. The information on the condition of foetus can be transmitted to the large hospitals for further diagnosis, he added.

Pharmabiz had reported earlier that for ISRO, telemedicine is one of its social sector spin-offs to provide healthcare in rural and remote areas. The project was pioneered by ISRO in 2001 with 5 nodes. Currently, 396 nodes link 53 speciality hospitals, 16 mobile health vans and 327 remote medical centres including Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Kargil and North East states with ISRO support and connectivity. Eighty percent users are trust hospitals including Sri Satya Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Sankara Nethralaya, Aravind Eye Hospital, Sree Ramachandra Medical Centre, Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital. and Madras Diabetic Foundation. Remaining 20 per cent include Narayana Hrudayalaya. The connectivity allows 17 simultaneous consultations to be carried out. There are fixed hours for speciality care consultations and 24/7 access for emergency care. The maximum consultations are for cardiology, ophthalmology, diabetes and radiology. There is ample scope to extend the same for paediatrics and oncology.