Hi-tech hope

Bangalore, Feb. 27: India?s expertise in telemedicine will be deployed for the benefit of the sick and infirm in Kabul this year.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will link Kabul with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) through the Insat satellite. The network will be extended to other cities in Afghanistan in due course for diagnosis and treatment of patients in the neighbouring country.

?We are ready to meet the requests of all our neighbours (by establishing satellite link with super-speciality hospitals in India),? Isro chairman G. Madhavan Nair said at a conference here.

?We have initiated the pilot project by procuring the equipment. We propose to commission the facility soon. A team of Afghan doctors and technical personnel will be trained to make use of the system and interface with the medical experts at AIIMS.

?Towns and villages in Afghanistan are remote and spread out. We have to first assess the basic infrastructure such as communication links and modern equipment available so as to provide telehealth services,? Nair added.

At home, Isro has spent Rs 10 crore on telemedicine network that facilitates diagnosis and treatment of patients living in remote villages and towns.

Three states ? Karnataka, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh ? have sought Isro?s help to establish a network of telemedicine nodes in far-flung regions. Over the last 18 months, about 100,000 people ? mostly from the Andamans, the Northeast and Kargil ? have been treated in well-known hospitals through the telemedicine system, the Isro chief said.

Next month, the space agency will host an international conference, Intelmedindia 2005, in Bangalore to discuss telemedicine initiatives across the world as well as technologies and business perspectives. This conference will serve as a meeting ground for doctors, equipment manufacturers, administrators and academicians.

In addition, a regional workshop will be held to train healthworkers in telemedicine in the two-day conference scheduled for inauguration by Kapil Sibal, Union minister of state for science and technology, on March 17.

?We have confirmed participation of experts from the WHO and the International Telecommunication Union,? Nair said.