Imphal, February 05: A regional level super specialty telemedicine centre at RIMS was today morning inaugurated by the Governor Arvind Dave.

Telemedicine system consists of customized medical software integrated with computer hardware and medical diagnostic instruments.

This system is connected to the commercial VSAT (Very small aperture terminal) at each location.

The medical history/record of the patient is sent via satellite to the specialist doctors who study and provide diagnosis and treatment in a video conference set up with the patient's end.

The entire technical set up is done by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The project is a joint project of ISRO and NEC.

It is planning to provide telemedicine facility to 72 district hospitals of eight states of north east to be connected to a super specialty hospital.

Mobile telemedicine facility and establishment of intensive care telemedicine centre in each state is envisaged.

The Governor Arvind Dave inaugurating the function said any effort made by government for the welfare of the people becomes meaningful only when the benefit of the same is available to the people.

As we are aware, people living in remote and far flung areas have been facing difficulties not only on medical but on several other fronts.

The inauguration of the Tele-medicine Centre will help to a great extent in ameliorating the sufferings faced by the people living in far flung areas of the state on the medical front.

Tele-medicine is the delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, using information and communication technologies for exchange of information for diagnostics, treatment and prevention of diseases, research and evaluation, and also for the continuing education of healthcare providers, towards advancing the health of individuals and communities.

Tele-medicine, thus, is not a new branch of medicine, but is actually the delivering of specialty medical care to the people living in remote areas by specialists using communications means Tike telephone, satellite transponder capacity, wireless devises and the computer.

In most cases, world wide Tele-medicine and Tele-health are just off-the-shelf applications of communication technology directly to the health care delivery system.

Tele-medicine system consists generally of customized medical software integrated with computer hardware, along with medical diagnostic instruments connected to communication backbone like PSTN/ISDN or VSAT Generally, the medical record/history of the patient is transmitted to the specialist doctors, who will in turn study and provide diagnosis and treatment during live tele interactions with the patient end.

Tele-medicine facility helps patients in rural and distant areas to avail timely consultation of specialist doctors without going through the ordeal of traveling long distances.

The facility caters normally for transmission of patient's medical images, records, output from medical devices, and sound files, besides a live two-way audio and video.

With the help of these, a medical specialist can on line advise a doctor or a paramedic at the patient's end, saving critical time and resources.

In the context of rural and distant areas, tele-medicine-based medical care is highly cost effective.

Both the escalating health care costs and the challenges of taking modern medical care tutorial and remote areas are tackled, at affordable cost, only with the technology based approach of this kind.

As such, tele-medicine is the new paradigm in health care delivery world over, which has shown the promise to ameliorate sufferings of millions in distant and rural areas.

MN Sathyanarayan, Executive Director of ISRO said it will help in providing specialized health care.

KC Bhattacharya, Director NE, SAC spoke about the activities of north eastern space application centre which helps in analyzing the area for suitable crop or detect possible calamity.

Dr L Fimate, Director of RIMS said the introduction of telemedicine is a landmark in the history of RIMS.

Various experts, doctors on the matter speaking to the media said the doctors will identify any case which can be referred for consultation.

It helps the patients as he/she need not physically go or if he/she has to go the tour can be planned after finishing all the formalities and necessary medical check up.

Expense is drastically reduced.

Specialists are mostly in the urban areas hence people in the rural can benefit the facility to get good health care.

The JN hospital and Tamenglong are in the next phase which will be completed soon.

While speaking via the new technology introduced the renowned Heart specialist Devi Prasad Setty of the Narayan Hridyalaya hospital, Bangalore has offered to freely operate five children of Manipur who need surgery.

The consultation is free of cost and advice is available through the network connected to the super specialty hospitals and other hospitals.

Twelve doctors have been trained in Manipur.

The Indian Space Research Organization uses its INSAT and IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) satellites for communications, television, education, meteorological services, disaster warning, natural resources survey and management.

Telemedicine was started in 2001 by ISRO and now it is available in 50 hospitals.

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