Narayana Hrudayalaya has launched a novel scheme, 'Hrudaya Post' under which the patients from remote villages can go to any of the post offices and can send their entire medical reports via email. The initiative is expected to reach medical help to lakh of heart patients in rural areas of the state.

For this first-of-its-kind project in the country, the Narayana Hrudayalaya has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the postal department. Under the MoU, 28 district headquarters in Karnataka have been roped in to offer the services through its post offices for this new concept for the benefit of the cardiac patients in the remote villages of the state.

The scheme 'Hrudaya Post' will link the 591 computerized post offices in the state to the Narayana Hrudayalaya. Heart patients living in the small towns and remote villages can go to any of the post offices and send their entire medical reports via email.

Under the project, the Karnataka Postal department will ensure a dedicated computer with a broadband connectivity and an official to scan the reports and necessary documents like ECG, blood test, echo-cardiogram and angiogram for diagnosis. The reports will be sent to the hospital and returned with the observations within 24 hours. The post office will ensure hand delivery of the reports by its team of postmen, Karnataka Post Master General Sheela Dutta said.

For the service, the post office has levied a fee of Rs 100 but the Narayana Hrudayalaya will offer the consultation to the patients free of cost. Narayana Hrudayalaya has a team of dedicated doctors including 30 surgeons led by Prof Jairaj who will review the reports. The key objective of the novel initiative is to provide timely advice to the poor patients because heart attack does not spare even the rural folk. Unfortunately most of them are not in a position to access high tech heart care available only in the cities. In the event of a chest pain, the rural folk usually go to a specialist for basic investigations and have no clue about what to do next. "Our aim is to provide guidance to the patients as over 90 per cent of the heart patients do not need a cardiac surgery and their condition can be controlled through medication," stated Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, managing director Narayana Hrudayalaya.

According to Prof Jairaj, the concept will bring the much-needed relief to the rural patients because it is an endorsement from a cardiac healthcare major. For further treatment or surgery options, the villagers need not access Narayana Hrudayalaya but could approach any medical centre of their choice in the district or taluka.

The software for the service has been developed by SN Informatics Bangalore.

Narayana Hrudayalaya is known for rural medical initiatives including the telemedicine link connecting states and those of the North East which has treated 22,000 patients in the last five years. The Yeshwasini health insurance at a premium of Rs 10 per person has also benefited around 3 million farmers so far.