Customised in unused shipping containers with high-end cloud-connectivity for video and audio links, the eHealth Centres can be rapidly deployed at any place. The centres will be manned by trained medical staffs equipped with necessary medical equipments.
Inaugurating the first centre during a press conference, Reddy said, "I am pleasantly surprised. This is a model which needs to be replicated by others. I consider the launch of the eHealth Center a landmark event in our efforts to reduce inequality in healthcare access while generating the data required for research and policy-making."
The facility has been developed through a joint initiative of Hewlett Packard and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The first centre in Haryana's Chausala village has been implemented and tested in partnership with the O P Jindal Gramin Kalyan Sansthan- founded by Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who was also present on the occasion.
A latest development in the area of information technology, cloud-connectivity is an Internet based medium used for transferring, computing and analysing real-time data.
Applauding the technology, Reddy said, "Employing unused shipping containers to create rapidly deployable, low-cost, cloud-connected health-infrastructure is a highly innovative strategy to bring health care to doorsteps of people."
Inequality in health care access is a major cause of increasing disease burden, high medical expense and inability to escape poverty, especially in developing world, he added.
Reddy also said the technology will also help in overcoming shortage of trained manpower in field of medicines, while making best use of existing infrastructure.
Reddy said, "The eHC solution addresses these challenges, It is a solution that is housed in a standard shipping container which can be quickly transported to remote areas of the country by air, rail or by land transport".
The containers are equipped with basic cloud-integrated diagnostic equipments, a telemedicine studio, laboratory and a pharmacy.
"Paramedics can staff the eHC, with specialist medical prescriptions provided through remote medical consultations. This minimises the need for on-site skilled doctors in isolated locations," he said.
Jindal termed the eHC as a perfect example of incorporating high-end technology for providing health care to poor people in remote areas.
"For creating a vibrant nation, we need healthy people. We have launched the pilot project in Chausala where anyone can get the service of best doctors through cloud-connectivity," he said.
Talking to reporters on sidelines of the programme, CSIR Director General S K Brahmachari said the pilot project with three shipping containers has been launched at a total cost of Rs 75 lakh.
"The prototype of every project is very expensive. But the cost will come down as we start making more such units," he said.
He also said that the containers have equipped with all safety and security measures such as lightening and ways to safely transfer the data.
CSIR has made the plans to launch 25 more such centres in coming years. "The locations we have chosen are remote tribal villages. Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh is one such village," he said.
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