The Hindu Business Line : Satyam, Byrraju provide ECG facility to villages

Hyderabad, Feb. 4 The global healthcare practice of the IT services provider, Satyam Computer Services Ltd in league with the Byrraju Foundation has implemented a programme to provide tele-electrocardiograms (ECGs) to patients in remote areas of the country.

Launched in 2007, this programme covers over 3.5 million people in rural villages across India and delivered through the Byrraju Foundation’s Ashwini Centres — local facilities — that provide healthcare, education, agriculture and job training for villagers.

While Satyam was able to deliver a system that effectively and affordably operates in areas with minimal communications and computing infrastructure, SN Informatics, a technology alliance member in the project, provided its software for free.

Medical help

The programme 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. The first service was provided in Jinnuru village and has since spread to 30 of the Byrraju Foundation’s 32 Ashwini centres.

Satyam’s global healthcare practice provides telemedicine, emergency management and portal solutions to physicians, hospitals and research facilities worldwide. Among other projects, Satyam is working with the Canadian government and has established the Satyam 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.