ISRO and Teleophthalmology

Established by the government of India in 1969, the prime objective of the ISRO has been to develop space technology and its application to various national tasks. The ISRO, which has a separate budget for the application of space technology for civilian purposes.

The ISRO has initiated a number of telemedicine pilot projects that are very specific to development needs of India. ISRO telemedicine projects link hospitals and mobile units in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India with super-speciality hospitals located in the city through Indian national satellite (INS). Hospital staff is trained to utilize the telemedicine facilities by the telemedicine system vendors.

MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

MS Swaminathan Research Foundation is a center for research for sustainable agricultural and rural development. It works in collaboration with Sankara Nethralaya and conducts Multi- Lingual Awareness Programme through their village resource centers. It also shows awareness CDs to the people of rural areas through the mobile vans of Sankara Nethralaya.

Vehicle Design

The Sankara Nethralaya mobile bus has three parts. The front portion of the bus is for the driver and staff during travel to remote areas. The middle portion is the main consultation room of the bus, which has ophthalmic and video conferencing equipment and seats for patients who wait their turn for tele-consultation. This part of the bus is fully air conditioned for optimal performance of the equipment. The ophthalmic equipment is mounted on a refraction unit which can be slid to use either the slit lamp or the non-mydriatic camera, and also includes the seating couch for the patient undergoing examination. There are storage compartments where the dismantled ophthalmic equipment is placed during travel.

The rear portion of the bus is for the storage of one additional set of ophthalmic equipment, pamphlets, chairs, cleaning equipment and luggage of the Teleophthalmology team; it also houses the generators (for captive power supply).

The satellite dish of the mobile bus is encased in a protective metal covering to prevent damage from natural causes, when not in use.

The ophthalmic equipments inside the bus includes the following: video indirect ophthalmoscope, direct ophthalmoscope, video  slit lamp imaging system, refraction unit,  portable slit lamps,  trial sets and vision drum, non-mydriatic fundus camera, four mirror gonioscope lens, tonopen, Digital Camera, and  retinoscopes.

Equipment in the bus used for teleconferencing includes the following: IP satellite console, antenna controller, P-4 computer with 512 Mb RAM with flat bed scanner and ink jet printer, SonyTM video conferencing camera and VeproTM PACS cum tele-medicine software

Accessories inside the bus include: a seating arrangement for patients, an air conditioner, a LCD projector, a laptop computer, a portable amplifier and cordless microphone, and awareness video and CDs about cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and eye donation.

Equipment outside the bus includes a 3 m dish antenna, two 5 KVA diesel generators, and a VSAT facility on top.

The Sankara Nethralaya rural teleophthalmology unit runs in collaboration with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), MSSRF (M. S. Swaminthan Research Foundation) and Essilor India Pvt ltd.