CHENNAI: Space Hospitals, which facilitates electronic connectivity among health care providers, proposes to bring into its fold speciality hospitals in Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Erode and connect them with major super speciality hospitals across the country.

The company hopes to network with nearly 100 centres this year.

The success of an experiment at Rajapalayam in the past eight months encouraged them to expand their programme, said chief executive officer Sanjay Bharadwaj.

Rajapalayam had a satellite medical centre from where a doctor functioned.

Using satellite communication, the doctor here consulted a specialist in New Delhi to treat a 10-year-old girl with a neurological problem successfully.

In the past months, the doctor attended to over 600 patients by networking with super speciality hospitals across the country.

The company plans to offer ambulances to provide free health check up in rural areas. Theywill have a trained paramedic to operate the communication and imagery equipment.

The ambulance will also have a V-SAT terminal, a computer with telemedicine software and a `black box' equipped with an electronic stethoscope to collect/record ECG and blood pressure details from a patient.

The data generated would be stored and used in continuing medical education programmes and for research.

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