Isha Foundation, Apollo Hospital launch telemedicine centre

To reach out to poor people in the rural areas to provide immediate medical solutions, Isha Foundation in collaboration with Apollo Hospitals inaugurated its first telemedicine centre in Isha Rural Health Clinic at Alandurai village in Coimbatore on Sunday.

Coimbatore collector M Karunagaran inaugurated the facility at the clinic in the presence of Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo hospitals and Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha foundations.

"With the increasing population in the village and the rise in health problems, people require a good health care facility," Jaggi Vasudev said. The clinic which has been serving the people for some years will help connect the best doctors and surgeons in distant locations with visiting patients through telemedicine, he said. The plan is to start 25 such clinics in rural areas, he informed. While Allopathy has brought great relief to patients, he said the role of traditional medicine should not be forgotten.

He said that the Isha foundation will be opening a 30-bed Isha Arogya hospital that would have Siddha, Ayurveda, Naturapathy, Yoga, and other traditional medicine methods to treat patients, along with Allopathy.

Professor Ganapathy, consultant neurosurgeon and director of Telemedicine, Apollo Hospital, said that people can utilise the facility from 9am to 5pm. Initially it will be operated from Monday to Saturday but in the future the facility will be open 24 hours. The facilities are free of cost, allowing patients to seek immediate care in case of an emergency or otherwise.

Patients can receive specialist consultation for diseases including diabetes, heart diseases, neurological diseases, respiratory diseases, gastritis, knee injuries and disorders, kidney and urological and paediatric diseases.

At least 70 to 80 patients visit the clinic from various villages, said Ma Induba, in-charge of the clinic. The clinic serves 30 villages and the facility is a breakthrough effort to reach out to rural folk to resolve their health problems, she said.