India to launch exclusive telemedicine satellite

By agencies   |   Thursday, 17 March 2005, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Telemedicine in India is poised for a big leap with the countryÂ’s premier space agency Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) planning to launch a communications satellite exclusively for health care so patients and doctors in remote rural areas can consult specialists in cities. Healthsat, to be launched within four years, will have wireless and terrestrial communication links, G Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization said. "Right now we will use the existing satellite transponders to serve 100 telehealth stations, including district hospitals and specialty hospitals, around the country," Nair said. "Next year we may touch 500 such stations and in 2007 about 1,000. So within the next three to four years we will have one exclusive satellite for the purpose of telemedicine," he said. As satellite based connectivity provider, ISRO will increase its telemedicine points from about 80 remote district hospitals linked to 29 superspeciality hospitals, Nair said. Nair said the organization might accept help from private corporations to fund the project. "By the second half of this year we will bring in private partners. We are also thinking of helping neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Myanmar on their telemedicine projects," he said. The telemedicine project, in which a patient in a remote area can consult a specialist in a city through a video satellite link, was launched in 2001 and has so far treated more than 25,000 patients across India. "With 75 percent of the Indian population living in rural and remote areas and more than 75 percent of the expert doctors living in urban areas, the only way to bridge the rural-urban divide appears to be through telemedicine," Nair said.