Karnataka Telemedicine Project Operational Phase service connecting 30 taluk and government hospitals in the districts with five super specialty medical centres in Bangalore and one in Mysore was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The five super specialty hospitals are Narayana Hrudayalaya, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, St John’s Medical College Hospital and Samathvam Institute of Diabetology in Bangalore and JSS Institute of Medical Sciences in Mysore.

Live demonstrations of connectivity established at the taluk hospitals in Sagar, Maddur and district hospitals at Karwar and Chitradurga marked the opening ceremony.

Karnataka has become the first state in the country to go operational with telemedicine service, launched by Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna.

The Karnataka Telemedicine Project is a joint venture between the Karnataka government and ISRO. The cost of telemedicine units in the rural hospitals amounts to Rs.15 lakh and efforts are being made to bring down the cost to Rs.5 lakh, informed Madhavan Nair chairman ISRO.

ISRO’s role in the telemedicine project was initially envisaged to be just the connectivity provider but it has taken on the task of providing the high quality diagnostic inputs and other software too, stated the ISRO chairman.

In Karnataka, in April 2002, ISRO saw the setting up of the telemedicine at district hospital of Chamrajanagar and Vivekananda Memorial Hospital HD Kote with the Narayana Hrudayalaya, a cardiac health service provider in the private sector.