The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Telemedicine facility to come up at PGI soon
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Oct 10 — Field trials of telemedicine system which will enable doctors stationed across the country to share opinion amongst themselves about patients through video conferencing will soon begin at the PGI, Chandigarh. The telemedicine system is being jointly developed by experts of the local Centre for Electronics Design and Technology of India (CEDTI) and C-DAC, Pune. India happens to be the second country in South East Asia to adopt the telemedicine project.

Initially, pathology, radiology and cardiology will be the three departments to use the facility at the PGI. Trials to add teleopthalmology to the telemedicine workstation are reportedly on. Experts at the CEDTI said the cost of a telemedicine workstation, which comes to an estimated Rs 10 lakh, could be cut down further in future.

In the first phase of the ambitious telemedicine project of the Union Ministry of Information Technology, three premier institutes of the country — PGIMER, Chandigarh, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute, Lucknow, and AIIMS, Delhi, were being linked for teleconsultation and tele-education. At the PGI, the telemedicine system was being developed under the guidance of Prof BD Gupta, medical advisor-cum-coordinator of the project.

The new facility will enable doctors to maintain electronic patient records (EPR), refer patients to any expert in the connected hospitals for specialised treatment or seek medical opinion as regards latest techniques. However, the facility is not only limited to patient care as it will also benefit in medical training at undergraduate and post graduate level and research purposes. Research, too, shall get a boost as the data stored can be assessed anywhere.

For teleradiology, the X-ray picture developed on traditional celluloid film is first converted to a digital format by scanning the film using a high-end flat-bed scanner. These digital images are then transferred to the specialists at the referral hospitals connected through the International Subscribers Digital Network (ISDN). Same procedure will be followed for telepathology. For telecardiology, ECG of the patient will be recorded, digitalized, stored and then transferred.

Mr R.S. Khandpur, Director of the CEDTI, said the telemedicine system was based on pentium PII 600 MHz machine with 256 MB RAM.

After carrying out field trials between the CEDTI and the PGI, the systems would be replicated at the AIIMS, New Delhi, and SGPGI, Lucknow. The doctors at the these institutions would be simultaneously trained on the operation and application aspects. Mr Khandpur said once the technology was established, it would be extended to the hospitals at district level, which in turn would be connected to the referral hospitals by the telemedicine links based on the workstations developed by the CEDTI and the CDAC, Pune.

SPORT

Shikha, Amod win TT titles
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Oct 10 — Shikha Sharma of the Sector 23 Coaching Centre in the women’s section and Amod Dixit of the office of the Haryana Accountant General (Audit) in the men’s section, emerged winners in the 13th Chandigarh State Table Tennis Championship that concluded here today in the Sector 23 hall. Mr P.K. Verma, IAS and Principal Secretary of Punjab for Health and Family Welfare, gave away the prizes.

The women’s final was a tough one. Defending champion Barkha K.C. of the DGACR lost to Shikha in five games, 17-21, 13-21, 21-14, 21-13, 10-21.

In the men’s singles final, Amod easily defeated Dheeraj Arora of the Reserve Bank of India, 21-19, 21-17, 21-17.

Varun Kassal of the Sector 41 AKSIP School won the junior boys’ singles title after beating Ramit Singla of the Sector 22 Shishu Niketan Senior Secondary School, 21-18, 21-17, 21-19.

Anoop K.C. and Barkha K.C. won the mixed-doubles title by beating Amod Dixit and Megha Kassal, 21-11, 16-21, 22-20.

PEC win
The Sector 12 Punjab Engineering College won the Panjab University Squash Championship. The Panjab University Campus, DAV College of Chandigarh, and the Sector 32 GGD SD College got second, third and fourth positions, respectively.

Results: PEC b PU Campus, 3-2 (Maninder b Rajiv, 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Nityanand Sharma b Rajiv Thakur, 9-1, 9-1, 9-1; Tarun Joshi lost to Ravneet Ahuja, 9-5, 3-9, 8-10, 4-9; Akash Gautam lost to Gaurav Liberhan, 0-9, 1-9, 1-9; Pradeep Bamal b Prabhjinder Singh, 9-6, 9-5, 9-0.

Meet postponedThe 6th Panchkula District Roller Skating Tourament, that was scheduled to be held from October 13 to 15 in Manav Mangal School at Panchkula, has been postponed, according to Mr K.P. Singh, Chairman of the Panchkula Roller Skating Association.

Cricket tournament
Yadavindra Public School of SAS Nagar beat St Anne’s Convent School of Chandigarh by 42 runs and Hansraj Public School of Panchkula beat St Xavier’s High School of Chandigarh by one run in the third Blessed Edmund Rice Cricket Tournament in the Sector 26 St John’s High School here.

In the other matches of the day, St Joseph’s-44 defeated Stepping Stones-38 by 44 runs and St John’s High School beat St Kabir’s School by 36 runs.

Baketball tourneyThe Chandigarh Basketball Association will hold the UT State Championship for boys and girls from October 17 to 19 in the Sector 7 Sports Complex, according to Mr K.S. Bharti, Secretary of the association. Players born on or after January 1, 1984, will only be eligible to take part in the meet.

The body has selected 30 boys and 15 girls for a 10-day coaching camp before the 17th Youth National Basketball Champiosnhip to be held in Navi Mumbai from November 4 to 11.

ADMINISTRATION

Strict vigilance on slum dwellers
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 10 — The Chandigarh Administration today said that strict vigilance shall be maintained on slum dwellers who will be given flats on rent built by the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) so that alienation of property does not take place.

Wherever it has been noticed in previous cases of rehabilitation schemes that the allottee had alienated the tenement in contravention of the terms and conditions of allottment, legal action is being taken. It has been noticed that several of earlier beneficiaries of the rehabilitation schemes had sold off their sites. This brought the decision to build multi-storey flats and given them on rent.

No changes have been made in the existing policy that was last amended in 1997. Under this a resident of a labour colony is considered for rehabilitation if the name of the allottee is on the voters’ list as on December 8, 1996, and is a bonafide resident of the city.