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Ayush ministry & ISRO to launch Tele-Ayush Project to take healthcare in remote areas
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Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai
July 26 , 2016
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The Union Ministry of Ayush and the Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) will soon launch a collaborative project 'Telemedicine in Ayush
(Tele-Ayush) Project' for taking the excellent healthcare facilities to
the people living in the poorest and remotest areas of the country,
where conventional methods of transport and help usually fail to work.
This
joint effort will make it possible for doctors and healthcare
professionals to save many lives in areas where basic life sustenance is
a daily problem. Precious lives are needlessly lost just because there
was no doctor at hand when the situation required. The Tele-Ayush
project aims at providing feasible healthcare services to the neediest
beneficiaries in the country, making the best use of satellite
technology, which will be provided by ISRO.
The Ayush Ministry's
initiative in this regard is significant as healthcare in India has
always been a major issue to tackle, chiefly due to the sheer scale of
the numbers. India's mammoth population, coupled with the vast and
varied terrain, which separates the rural and urban areas and the lack
of basic, adequate facilities in rural and remote areas has made it a
gargantuan task to provide quality and efficient healthcare to the
people residing in such areas. While their urban brethren continue to
enjoy the choicest medical care and attention, India's poor and
underprivileged do not have access to basic life necessities, let alone
healthcare. Keeping this in mind, the Ministry of Ayush and ISRO have
come together to launch this collaborative project.
Earlier, the
Ministry had constituted a Working Group, under the chairmanship of Dr.
R. K. Manchanda, DG, Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, for
the development and propagation of Tele-Ayush. The Working Group was
asked to deliberate on specific points and submit a report. These points
include gather the detailed requirements from the Ministry of Ayush;
gather information on the technicalities of implementation; a detailed
budgetary analysis for the entire project; ascertain resource
requirement (human, hardware/software, infrastructure, etc.); a feasible
time-line for development and deployment; and a thorough analysis and
study of the entire project.
In its report submitted to the
government recently, the Working Group recommended that the Ministry can
utilize the existing infrastructure (dispensaries etc.) for providing
healthcare services in remote and rural areas; Tele-Ayush can also
utilise the ISRO's existing telemedicine nodes located across country;
CHCs and PHCs can be strengthened and developed by providing the
services and expertise of Ayush doctors; these can also be used as
specialized centres for providing exclusive healthcare services to
people; Ayush doctors/paramedics can be further trained by CME
programmes conducted through the TM network; they can act as consultants
at the PHCs and CHCs as required and provide valuable help to the
already practising doctors and healthcare personnel; smaller research
units of the Councils, or Ayushgrams, can be implemented in rural/tribal
areas which can function as nodes for the public outreach programmes
with the provision and deployment of adequate manpower; and National/All
India Institutes and Central/Regional Institutes of Research Councils
of Ayush systems can also operate as nodes for specialized
consultations.
On the role of the Ministry of Ayush, the Working
Group recommended to Identify super specialist nodes (SS Nodes) &
patient nodes for providing telemedicine consultation services by the
Ministry; Preparation of TM consultations weekly schedule well in
advance and to be sent to all concerned, like doctor end nodes, patient
nodes, TM hub at ISTRAC Bengaluru and DECU/ISRO; Monitor and send
monthly network utilisation report to DECU/ISRO; Arrange maintenance of
civil, electrical and other supporting infrastructures at the user
location; Arrange safe custody of items supplied and installed,
identification of the custodian for each TM node and maintain the
inventory which should be verified periodically; Arrange lodging
complaint with local police in case of theft/loss of any item and to
send one copy of FIR to DECU/ISRO; Enter into separate MoUs between
themselves and the user agencies where TM nodes are to be installed for
operations, safekeeping, maintenance payments after one year of phase-1
etc; Identifying local dedicated site coordinators at the telemedicine
centres for enabling smooth setup of facilities; The selected centres to
provide required civil infrastructure like room (10' x20'), space for
antenna, power, UPS, furniture, etc; and Providing manpower support for
the smooth operation of the telemedicine nodes and identification of the
doctors/medical staff for supporting teleconsultations, both at the
patient nodes and selected super specialist nodes.
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