TNN

Bangalore, Apr 5: ISRO showcased the power and effectivity of its tele-medicine services by presenting a live demonstration of the network to Raichur and Dharwad district centres from the ISRO headquarters on Friday.

During a workshop on tele-medicine, ISRO officials demonstrated how patients could contact doctors and communicate their problems. The doctors' response and recommendations can be made operative by the doctors at the district centres. Through the system, patients anywhere can avail of services of experts and specialists in hi-tech hospitals in urban areas.

ISRO will be networking 14 districts in the state with tele-medicine facility, which will cut costs for doctors as well as patients and ensure better health services to people in rural areas.

ISRO also has plans to increase the number of village resource centres (VRC) which provide information and services to lakhs of people, from the present 2,000 to 4,000 in the next couple of years.

The tele-medicine network using INSAT that facilitates expert medical services to reach the remote and rural areas has expanded to connect 186 hospitals - 152 in remote and rural areas and 34 super-specialty hospitals in major cities.

Chief secretary Sudhakar Rao was present during the demonstration.

EDUSAT network has also expanded and so far nine networks using the national beam and 22 networks using regional beams have been implemented. In all, nearly 10,200 terminals have been connected in the EDUSAT network.