TeleICU hub launched at hospital in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Nov 29 (PTI) Karnataka's Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, along with Google Cloud and eGovernments Foundation, has launched the first TeleICU hub at K R Hospital in the district headquarters town of Mysuru.

"10BedICU" is a programme managed by the 'eGovernments Foundation' and conceived during the pandemic to create ICUs (intensive care units) in government hospitals across the country, especially in rural and remote areas, according to a statement issued by Google Cloud and eGovernments Foundation.

The objective of the 10BedICU programme is to create a hub-and-spoke model where specialists from medical colleges manage the 10BedICUs in remote taluka hospitals that are connected to a TeleICU Hub, it was stated.

In Mysuru, the TeleICU hub in K R Hospital is connected to peripheral taluka government hospitals in Nanjangud, HD Kote, Santhemarahalli, Malavalli and Virajpet.

Technology provides the backbone of the 10BedICU programme, the statement said.

Patient care at each 10BedICU is made possible by eGovernments Foundation's 'CARE' platform, a cloud-based open source patient management tool, as well as a smart capacity management software and patient management software, it said.

These form a TeleICU module which runs on Google Cloud's infrastructure and can be accessed in real-time by medical professionals at the TeleICU hub in K R Hospital and the connected spoke hospitals.

"The TeleICU hub at K R Hospital (launched on Monday) is also equipped with large 4K monitors and desktops while the peripheral 10BedICUs are equipped with desktops, server, high-resolution cameras and medical devices connected via LAN." In Karnataka, the 10bedICU programme will cover 41 taluka hospitals with up to two hospitals in every district, the statement said.

“At Google Cloud, we believe that cloud technology can play a significant role in advancing patient care and healthcare outcomes,” said Google Cloud India's managing director Bikram Singh Bedi.

Chairman, 10BedICU Project and Managing Trustee, eGovernments Foundation, Srikanth Nadhamuni, said, “We launched a hub in Manipur with Google Cloud earlier this year and are now launching our first hub in Karnataka. The powerful TeleICU concept was first piloted in Mysuru at K R Hospital connecting five taluka hospitals and its immediate success encouraged us to take the model across many states nationally”. PTI RS ROH ROH