India to launch satellite exclusively for telemedicine

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2005

BANGALORE, India (AFP) — India plans to launch a communications satellite exclusively for health care so patients and doctors in remote rural areas can consult specialists in cities, the head of the country's space agency told reporters.

Healthsat, to be launched within four years, will have wireless and terrestrial communication links, G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said Thursday.

"Right now we will use the existing satellite transponders to serve 100 telehealth stations, including district hospitals and speciality hospitals, around the country," Nair said.

"Next year we may touch 500 such stations and in 2007 about 1,000. So within the next three to four years we will have one exclusive satellite for the purpose of...