As interest in medical electronics soars, there is also growing concern about associated quality, safety, reliability, cost, liability and regulatory issues. India’s Department of Information Technology (DIT) under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has instituted a Medical Electronics and Telemedicine Division to address these matters. Given the crucial role that medical electronics plays in health management and diagnostics, DIT has instituted a series of measures to spur growth within this sector and generate awareness about medical electronics technology among healthcare stakeholders. A further goal is encouraging the deployment of indigenously developed medical electronic devices in healthcare centres across the country.
DIT has undertaken the development of telemedicine technology to provide quality healthcare to patients in rural, remote locations. Telemedicine centres have been set up as pilot projects in Tripura, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Several doctors and paramedics have also been trained in the use of this technology.
Following are some of the major ongoing projects under the aegis of the Medical Electronics and Telemedicine Division:
- Deployment of indigenously developed 6-MeV medical linear accelerator for cancer treatment (Jai Vigyan Phase II; Sameer, Mumbai)
- Design and development of an electronic portal imaging device for radiation therapy (CSIO, Chandigarh; TSG, Integration, New Delhi)
- Establishment of a facility for the batch fabrication of linear accelerator tubes and machines (Sameer, Mumbai)
- Design and development of 2.6-Mw S-band tunable pulse magnetron (Ceeri, Pilani, Rajasthan)
- Design and development of dual photon energy and multiple electron energy integrated oncology system (Sameer, Mumbai)
- Design and development of Multileaf Collimator for use in medical linear accelerators (Sameer, Mumbai)
- Development of high-speed interpoint braille embosser (WML, Kolkata, and CMERI, Durgapur)
- Design and development of cost-effective biosignal-controlled prosthetic hand (Tezpur University)
- Technology development for building distributed, scalable and reliable healthcare information store (CDAC, Pune)
- Development of medical image analyser for cervical cancer (Cervi SCAN; CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram; IIT, Kharagpur; and RCC, Thiruvananthapuram)
- Virtual reality–based minimally invasive surgical simulator with haptic feedback (IIT, Chennai, and CMC, Vellore)
- Development of a web-enabled e-healthcare system for neonatal patient care services (IIT, Kharagpur; SSKM Hospital, Kolkata; and WECS Kolkata)
- Web-enabled medical information access using handheld devices in a wireless environment for telemedicine applications (IIT, Kharagpur, and WECS, Kolkata)
- Development of telemedicine at remote CHC/PHC in Tripura (WECS, Kolkata)
