Hospitals set to upgrade emergency and critical care services through ISRO learnings

Some of India's hospitals are set to upgrade the quality of their services leveraging space technology in emergency care and critical care departments through learnings from ISRO.

Many healthcare associations approached ISRO in 2016 to learn the best practices in its quality domain and implement them in their emergency care and critical care departments "for reducing mortality rates."

They included Association of Healthcare Providers (India) (AHPI), Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM), Society for Emergency Medicine India (SEMI), and the Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO), according to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).

"It is heartening to note that the pilot studies conducted in Dr Mehta's hospital, Chennai and Narayana Health City, Bangaluru, based on the learnings from ISRO, have yielded positive results," the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement late on Tuesday.

To derive wider benefit from such knowledge-transfer from ISRO and further improve on the way the services are provided at these departments, it is planned to implement the Health-QUEST (Quality Upgradation Enabled through Space Technology) studies in 11 selected hospitals across the country, it said.

The ISRO did not name the selected hospitals. "Keen interest has also been shown by health care professionals in learning about how ISRO is planning to handle the interplay among Man, Machine and Environment in the Human Space flight programmes and about the medical equipment developed by ISRO," the statement said.

In this context, the Directorate of Safety Reliability and Quality (DSRQ), ISRO, is planning to organise a HEALTH-QUEST event at ISRO headquarters on Thursday.

Secretary in the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman, Somanath S, will be delivering the keynote address during the event where a brain-storming session between the quality experts from ISRO and eminent doctors from various domains across the country is planned, the space agency said. DSRQ Director Dr. Brinda V, Narayana Health Chairman Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, AHPI President Dr. Alexander Thomas, and SEMI President Dr. Venkatesh A N will be among those sharing their experiences during the event, it was stated.

ISRO said it has always been striving to serve the nation and to contribute to space science and technology for betterment of human life. Advancements in space technology, it said, has created a positive impact in society, especially in sectors like health care, education, communication, broadcasting, disaster management, safety & security and land and water resource management.

Technology spin-offs from the Indian space programme have benefited mankind by way of cost-effective developments in health care like artificial limb, artificial jaw bones, left ventricular assist device and ventilators.

In the area of safety, spinoffs include flame-proof coatings (fire safety), Aerogel - Thermal wear for soldiers (for protection from extreme cold weather) distress alert systems and search & rescue beacons have come in handy in the area of disaster management, ISRO said.