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Spreading rays of hope
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The Apollo Hospitals recently crossed yet another milestone in medicare, with the satellite link-up of its 40 branches countrywide by the ISRO. A report.
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TAMBARAM HAS always been referred to as a satellite township of Chennai. By the same logic, the Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals has a number of satellite hospitals or branches all over the country. Therefore, one could be forgiven for inferring that Apollo Hospitals at Madurai or Aragonda are merely branches of the parent in Chennai. But, as of February 15, all this has changed.
Apollo Hospitals, the Chennai-based pioneering corporate institution of managed healthcare, will be going nuclear. For the very first time in India, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has joined hands with the giant hospital chain, to provide satellite links with all the Apollo Hospitals in the country. What does this mean to the layperson? Quite simply, that any of the Apollo Hospitals in the country would be able to reach the mother unit - Chennai - by simply logging on to the videoconferencing facility in its respective telemedicine room. Thanks to the superior imaging that the 2 MBPS bandwidth that ISRO's INSAT 3B satellite provides, super specialists at Apollo, Chennai, can scrutinise live CT scans or ultrasound pictures beamed from distant Kohima or Guwahati, for example, on a wide TV screen. The vital opinion is given from the Chennai end and the doctor at the other end can actually see and converse with his senior colleague.
Sounds incredible? That's the convergence of technology and medicine and the credit goes to Dr. Prathap C. Reddy (chairman, Apollo Hospitals) and his team. On the occasion of Founder's Day of Apollo (Feb 5), he reminisced,"It's been a tremendously satisfying run, from a 150-bed hospital in 1982 to 4,000 beds all-India in 2002. Our objective has been geared to transform illness to well-being, harnessing medical excellence with dynamic technology." February 15 will be a milestone for him when ISRO chief, Dr. Kasturirangan, flags off the satellite link, which will propel Apollo to the stars.
In due course, the satellite link will be made available to 40 locations in the country. The ISRO provides the infrastructure, equipment and bandwidth and Apollo extends subsidised rates to needy patients in the rural hinterland. They can access world-class medicare at nominal rates. And this has for long been Dr. Reddy's aim. With his vision and the thrust delivered by senior vice-president, Dr. B. Premkumar and Prof. K. Ganapathy, eminent neurosurgeon and medical director of Telemedicine at Apollo - the concept of delivery of medicare to remote areas has crystallised.
Dr. Varghese T. George, general manager (technology), Apollo Hospitals, traced the evolution of remote medicine from the days of Morse code used by sailors to treat the sick while at sea. In those days when scurvy and worse could plague sailors, they would be treated by relying on the instructions relayed over the air waves. Fast forward to NASA when astronauts on long voyages in outer space are ministered to by telemedicine.
Apollo Hospitals has emerged as a pioneer in satellite medicine in India and the impressive telemedicine facility at Apollo Chennai, the mother craft, is manned by Dr. J. Thiruvengadam from the medical side and A. K. Kishore Reddy, technologist. Dr. Thiruvengadam says, "The advantage of satellite over ISDN lines is the phenomenal depth, clarity and resolution of imaging at 2 MBPS , a far cry from the 39KBPS that we have seen till now."
Says Kishore Reddy, "Apollo can now provide consultancy to set up telemedicine with the experience gained over the last two years. We are particularly proud of having organised phono-surgery earlier this month. Two hundred ENT specialists gathered at the Taj Coromandel Hotel and witnessed and interacted with the operation theatre at Apollo where laryngeal framework and endolaryngeal surgeries were performed. This happened by wireless at 4 MBPS!"
Dr.Varghese George is excited that any location in India, which may not even have terrestrial lines, can now gain access to world-class imaging.
Finally, to commemorate one man's vision, Apollo has put up a 50-bed hospital in Aragonda, a village 18 km from Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh. Of course, Aragonda will be linked by satellite to Chennai and, for a pittance, a peasant from the hamlet can be examined by an eminent physician at Apollo, Chennai.
Why has Aragonda been selected to build a hospital? Well, for one reason, it is the birthplace of Dr. Prathap Reddy. Also, for any patient from Aragonda, who can afford to pay medical insurance of one rupee a day, five people of the family are covered for medical expenses of up to Rs.15,000. Surely, this is an example of thinking global and acting local.
Even as Dr. Reddy has reached the sky while going back to his roots, his chariot of the Greek god of the Sun will keep its tryst with destiny, driven firmly as it is by Preetha (MD, Apollo, Chennai) and Sangeetha (MD, Apollo, Hyderabad). Twenty years ago, the founder was clairvoyant enough to name his hospital Apollo, perhaps with the inkling that he would be using spacecraft to deliver quality medicare!
M. SRINATH NARAYAN
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