Jaipal Reddy unveils India's first e-health center

Union Minister for Science and Technology Jaipal Reddy has today launched India's first fully integrated cloud-enabled e-health center today. Jointly developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Hewlett Packard (HP), the initiative has been implemented in partnership with OP Jindal Gramin Jan Kalyan Sansthan at the Chausala village in haryana's Kaithal district.

The eHC solution facilitates preliminary healthcare and affordable healthcare in remote rural regions. It is a fully integrated remote medical consultation center with automated health data uploaded directly from the diagnostic equipment. The center is not dependent on grid electricity. It also sends out SMS-based health check-up reminders to patients. This program will be extended to 24 locations, and energy-neutral data centers would be leveraged.

"This scheme has enormous potential and technology is an enabler. The size of the problem is sheer which can be addressed by such initiatives," said Reddy. The people in rural areas, he said, have no access to specialists and this solution should be extended to urban slums. Reddy also said that government is ready to support such programs.

Industrialist and MP Naveen Jindal said that with an objective to benefit people with medical facilities, the world's first eHC has been launched in Chausala village. "This allows healthcare services at doorstep and it could be done at a large scale. Jindal believes that integration of wellness services and data is vital, and this solution, based on cloud platform can be easily deployed. "The experience of Chausala can be be helpful to entire nation," he added.

Samir K Brahmachari, director general, CSIR and secretary, DSIR at the Ministry of Science and Technology said that open source is an area that can be leveraged for drug discovery. "Diagnostics is expensive and and eventually this solution would become calibration centre across India. It will facilitate low-cost diagnostics. Brahmachari feels that each parliamentarian should implement such project with MPLADS fund.

HP India MD Neelam Dhawan said that eHC is cloud based e-health infrastructure initiative and is innovation in healthcare sector. "The solution integrates standard HP offerings such as networking, software and remote monitoring tools. Dhawan also believes that 75% wellness infrastructure has an urban focus while majority of population resides in rural India.

The cost of this center is nearly Rs 25 lakh with direct funding from CSIR as well as technology implementation is done by HP. Maharaja Agrasen Medical College is providing interns and healthcare staff. Orion eServices and 3M India have also partnered in this social initiative. More than 4,000 patients visited eHC during the first 100 days of its pilot operation.