BMC hospitals come into telemedicine loop
Mumbai: ACCIDENT victims or critically ill residents of rural Maharashtra may soon not need to make the trip to Mumbai for treatment at one of the premier civic hospitals.
For, the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon be able to conduct diagnostic tests and offer medical advice via satellite, through a telemedicine project it is finalising along with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The hub of the project is the KEM Hospital in Parel, which will be connected via Indian National Satellite (INSAT) to patients at the civic-run V N Desai Hospital in Santacruz and to remote hospitals in the rest of Maharashtra. ‘‘We are proposing to be linked with four district-level hospitals,’’ informed Additional Municipal Commissioner Vijaysinh Patankar. ‘‘Most of them are in the Marathwada region and one is in Konkan.’’
Dr Nilima Kshirsagar, dean of KEM Hospital, said the district hospitals that have been selected are at Beed, Nandurbar, Latur and Sindhudurg.
While the telemedicine systems—satellite bandwidth as well as software, hardware and communication equipment at both ends of the network—are provided by the Department of Space through ISRO, the hospitals—in this case, the BMC and the government-run hospitals at the remote node—will foot the bills for any additional manpower or maintenance required.
‘‘Patients at the patient node (the remote node) at these district hospitals and at V N Desai Hospital will get opinions regarding diseases related to any speciality available at KEM,’’ said Dr Kshirsagar. ‘‘Including general medicine and surgery, gynaecology and obstetrics, pediatrics, neorology, cardiology, neurosurgery, nephrology, etc.’’
From Latur, Beed, Nandurbar and Sindhudurg, patient data including results of investigations as well as scanned images of X-rays, CT scans, MRI plates and electrocardiograms can be transmitted to KEM too.
Telemedicine, an application of space technology for boosting medical services and infrastructure, was launched in India in 2001, through a Department of Space-sponsored programme. Through the INSAT System, hospitals or health facilities in remote areas are linked with the much better-equipped and more experienced super-speciality hospitals in major cities.
The Memorandum of Understanding with ISRO is in an advanced stage of finalisation. ‘‘It is expected to be signed within a few weeks,’’ said Kshirsagar.
* All over India, 152 hospitals are now linked by INSAT (120 rural or district hospitals with 32 speciality hospitals in major cities).
* In Mumbai, the Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, already provides telemedicine facilities in cancer detection and treatment
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