Telemedicine has the major principle of providing the best healthcare services irrespective of geographical location. Remote expertise of medical specialists/superspecialists should be brought to the desk of any primary, secondary healthcare personnel. Technically viewing, the main link used is either VSAT, ISDN or broadband. They have their own advantages and disadvantages either in cost (installation/running) or unavailability. VSAT has a high installation cost although it is very suitable for remote areas and ISDN lines high in running costs. Again the main problem is availability. ISDN and broadband lines are not available in all areas.
Viewing all the hindrances and hurdles, it will be wise enough if we have a look at the conventional PSTN lines and GSM. PSTN lines are already available for a doctor to deliver medical diagnosis and education remotely. Wireless Telemedicine is a new area exploiting recent advances in wireless communication networks. Telemedicine using PSTN and GSM will somehow be limited but will be really promising.
Telecardiology has really proved successful using PSTN and GSM networks. Healthcare, Telebiomedical Pvt. Ltd. has come up with several cutting edge technologies which can transfer esential medical data over PSTN, mobile phones and other electronic media. They have several devices which can transfer ECG signals, Blood pressure, SPO2, Blood glucose etc.

The North Eastern part of India is a very diversified terrain consisting of many hilly areas. Timely and cost effective healthcare has always been a challenge. This is mainly due to its geographical location, low doctors to patients ratio, lack of superspeciality hospitals etc. The main cost and time factor is of travel, secondary cost like that of hospital stay (fooding and lodging) of attendants apart from the real treatment cost.

The Telemedicine setup can really do a great job in this region. It can really shrink up the distance and bridge the gap of timely healthcare. Health check ups, follow ups can be done through the link along with Telemedicine softwares and video conferencing, which will be really helpful to the people dwelling in hilly areas. Electronic Medical Records can be maintained which can be used and incorporated if refferal to other hospitals is necessary.

Although a few places has been connected with the pilot project of ISRO, many nodal centres are yet to identified and the facility installed. Many other projects are also been undertaken and in the process of installation using ISDN lines and broadband.

A Telemedicine Project is being taken up and is in the process of installation. It covers all the nine districts of Manipur with the server based at JN Hospital, Porompat, Imphal. The connectivity is broadband based. PC based video conferencing facility is also made available. RIMS and JN Hospital will be the specialist centres with other hospitals of the state as nodal centres.