Byrraju, Satyam to provide Tele-medicine for rural population

Hyderabad, Feb 4 (UNI) Satyam Computer Services Ltd today announced that its global healthcare practice, working with the Byrraju Foundation, has implemented a programme to provide Tele Electro Cardiograms (ECGs) to patients in remote areas of the country.

Launched last year, the programme already covers some 3.5 million people in rural villages across India, and was delivered through Byrraju Foundation's Ashwini Centres, local facilities that provide high-quality healthcare, education, agriculture, and job training to villagers, a release here said.

''With this capability, we were able to treat many more patients from a central location,'' said Dr Arun Kumar, adding that it has become much easier for village clinics to identify patients, who require immediate care.

Byrraju Foundation Lead Partner V S N Raju said, ''As a non-profit organisation, we are always conscious of creating self sustainable, cost-effective models. Satyam has helped us in identifying and implementing scalable and affordable technology that meets our needs.'' The programme, started on October two, 2007, enables patients in rural villages to have an ECG conducted at a local Aswini clinic, while doctors at hospitals, such as Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) in Bangalore offer immediate interpretation, as well as teleconference consultations.

''Byrraju Foundation is creating a world class platform for holistic rural transformation, using cutting edge technologies in partnership with Satyam,'' said Byrraju Foundation Lead Partner Jacob Verghese.

Satyam's global healthcare practice provides telemedicine, emergency management, EHR, EMR and portal solutions to physicians, hospitals, and research facilities worldwide.

Among other projects, Satyam is currently working with the Canadian Government and has established Satyam iEHR Centre Canada at Mohawk Applied Research Centre for Health Informatics to develop an Interoperable Electronic Health Records (iEHR) Reference Implementation, which prototypes advanced data interoperability standards for the country.

Satyam was also working on an EHR implementation for the National Department of Health in South Africa. ''Satyam is ahead of the curve in areas like Emergency Management Solutions and we are seeing a lot of interest in our EHRs and Telemedicine solutions,'' said Prasad Dindigal, VP and Global Head of Healthcare Provider at Satyam.

''Our strategy is to focus on integrated healthcare by bridging the gaps that exist today, as we did with the tele-ECG, and create interoperability between systems to provide solutions that benefit the populace at large,'' Mr Prasad added.

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