Satyam NGO arm to expand tele-ECG initiative

Byrraju Foundation, the NGO outfit of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services Limited, plans to extend its tele-electrocardiogram (ECG) initiative to another 50 villages in Andhra Pradesh by the end of 2008, said foundation lead partner, VSN Raju.

The programme, part of the foundation's tele medicine module, was started on October 2, 2007. The first service was provided in Jinnuru village of West Godavari. It is supported by Satyam's global healthcare practice, which provides telemedicine, emergency management and portal solutions to physicians, hospitals and research facilities worldwide.

The programme, which enables patients in rural villages to have an ECG conducted at a local Ashwini centre while doctors at hospitals such as Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore offer immediate interpretation, has so far recorded 2,878 interpretations. Of these, 576 patients were referred to physicians for further investigation and 18 required immediate medical attention.

"We are extending the tele-ECG service at our 32 Ashwini centres, which provide high-quality healthcare, education, agriculture and job training to villagers, and at 18 ISRO centres in the state. We intend to take this number to 100 by this year end," Raju told Business Standard.

Stating that the initiative is currently being funded by Satyam founder and chairman B Ramalinga Raju and his family in their personal capacity, besides receiving patronage from the Department of Information Technology-promoted Media Lab Asia and the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), he said the foundation was looking at various state governments and organisations to further fund the initiative and enable them to expand the reach of this service to other parts of the country. Each Ashwini centre involves an investment of Rs 7 lakh, including a telecom tower and other equipment.

Byrraju Foundation started in July 2001 and has so far impacted 3.5 million lives in 185 villages spanning 6 districts in Andhra Pradesh through various programmes including the rural BPO initiative, GramIT.