Former President of India Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, who had conceived the lofty idea of the Pan-African e-Network for the accelerated socio-development of Africa, visited the Tele-Medicine Set-up of the project at Sri Ramachandra Medical Center (SRMC), Chennai on 6th January 2010. He watched live the online tele-consultation between the specialist at SRMC and the patient-end doctor at the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also interacted with the Ethiopian doctor about the patient and enquired how the facility of tele-medicine on the Pan-African e-Network helped them.
He expressed his happiness over the progress of Pan-African e-Network Project and the role of telemedicine. During his brief interaction with press and electronic media, he spoke about the project, Tele-Consultation and Tele-Education. He appreciated the collaborative efforts made by the Govt. of India, AU Commission and its member states participating in the project and the implementing agency TCIL in successfully implementing the project for the benefit of people in Africa.
Dr. Kalam spent about 90 minutes at the centre.
The project is funded by the Govt. of India (through the Ministry of External Affairs) at a budgetary cost of US$116 Million (INR 5429 Million).
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