Apollo to set up telemedicine kiosks

HYDERABAD: Come December, health care services can be availed through kiosks which will look like telephone booths thanks to a joint initiative being undertaken by hospital chain Apollo Enterprises Ltd and telecom service providers Aircel and Idea.Named, Tele Health Stations, these facilities are being set up as part of the last mile connectivity of health care services across the country.The proposed 100 sft facility will be equipped with technology to connect patients and doctors using tele and video conferencing solutions.“This concept is a variant of tele-medicine but involves little hospital infrastructure but operates on high-speed network.A technician will be available 24 hours and patients will be connected with doctors at Apollo.Even patients suffering from chronic diseases should be able to make use of these facilities,” said Dr C Pratap Reddy, chairman, Apollo Enterprises.The first such facility is likely to become operational by December.“The idea is to start with one, scale up to 10s, 100s and then thousands and so on.The beauty of this initiative is its ease of setting up and the benefits it could offer for patients particularly in rural areas,” Reddy explained.Meanwhile, Apollo also said it would set up its first medical college in Hyderabad with an investment of `50 crore to `100 crore for undergraduates.It is expected to become operational in the next academic year.The group received approvals from the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the department of life sciences but is yet to get a nod from the Medical Council of India (MCI).An MCI team is expected next week to make a final inspection.“This is part of a complete chain in the health care sector.The second college is expected to come up in Chennai and we are talking to the Tamil Nadu government on it,’’ Reddy said, adding, “We are planning to set up model medical colleges, possibly with an intake of 100 students as stipulated by the MCI guidelines.” Apollo has over 10 nursing colleges and two hospital management colleges across the country and is investing Rs. 1,400 crore to add 2,500 beds.