Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is all set to take A full-fledged, self-sufficient mobile medical unit for cancer screening, including all basic diagnostics and ultrasound scan, fully designed and equipped to the rural areas in Karnataka.

This is the fourth such mobile unit designed by C-DAC. It has been built out of a 11-m-long Viking chassis of a luxury bus. Apart from a spacious driver’s cabin and spacious seats for the medical team, the unit incorporates a mini lab with a haematology analyser, auto analyser and a digital microscope; an examination area with a surgical table for doing minor procedures; a digital X-ray unit in pneumatic design, housed within radiation protection walls; a 12-lead digital ECG machine; and an ultrasound scan area. The examination area has a small wash room with toilet and wash basin too.

J. Binu, senior engineer at C-DAC said, “We designed the unit as per the requirements of the Kidwai Centre, which wants to use this for cancer screening and follow-up care amongst the rural population. They wanted the unit so designed that all basic investigations can be completed and a preliminary diagnosis delivered to a patient.”

“In the next phase, they want to incorporate telemedicine facility also in this unit, for which the C-DAC has developed its own software with SNOMED CT-Dicom compatibility, so that the digital medical images and electronic medical records of patients can be transmitted using 4G connectivity,” he added.

The previous mobile medical units that were designed by C-DAC has been having a very successful run in the State.

Sanjeevani, a mobile unit with telemedicine facility designed by C-DAC is already running successfully at Malabar Cancer Care Society which is an NGO serving the rural population in five districts of north Kerala since 10 years.