The writer Dr. N K Singh, a Manipuri, is the Director of Tele Cardiology and Tele Health at the famous Narayana Hrudayala (Cardiology Hospital), Bangalore. Narayana Hrudayala was established under the leadership of the renowned Heart specialist Dr. Devi Shetty.
Moving Forces
The growing importance of telemedicine was formally recognized during summits like the First World Telemedicine Symposium for Developing Countries, held in Portugal in 1997 by the ITU. The ITU and WHO have formed study groups around the issue, and also conduct pilot projects in partnership with private sector players. The ITU published the "Report on Telemedicine and Developing Countries" last year.
The Midjan Group, part of the European Health Telematics Observatory, provides European telemedicine services to developing countries like South Africa and Senegal. The Observatory has five national language affiliated sites in France, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Finland.
Satellite consortia like Intelsat and Inmarsat have been involved in numerous telemedicine projects. Other telecom and datacom projects to watch for include AT&T's Africa ONE project and Project Oxygen. World Space has three three geo-stationary satellites Asia Star, AfriStar and CaribStar for digital audio broadcasting in developing countries.
International NGOs like the Association for Progressive Communciations also provide low cost Internet solutions for non-commercial use in dozens of developing countries. IDRC's Acacia project www.idrc.ca/acacia specialises on providing such Internet resources to African countries.
Till 1995, most telemedicine projects involved cooperation between developed and developing countries, but the Net has helped more South-South collaboration between developing countries in recent years.
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