Narayana Hrudayalaya

Narayana Hrudayalaya, located in the city of Bangalore, India, is one of the world's largest pediatric heart hospitals. It is the brainchild of the renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr. Devi Shetty. Narayana Hrudayalaya also receives patients from outside India and it has created a record of performing nearly 15,000 surgeries on patients from 25 foreign countries. It is also a renowned centre for telemedicine and it offers this service free of cost.

History
Narayana Hrudayalaya was started in the year 2001 by Dr. Devi Shetty under the aegis of the Asian Heart Foundation (AHF). Bangalore was chosen as the location of the hospital since his family members refused to finance a heart hospital in any other place. Financial contribution for the construction of the hospital was provided by Dr. Shetty's father-in-law. . Spread over 25 acres, it is located in the Bommasandra Industrial Area on the Hosur Road in Bangalore. With the Phase I of the construction being completed, the hospital currently has six stories containing 500 beds and 10 operating theatres.

Services
Apart from cardiology, the hospital also offers treatments in the area of Pediatrics, Neurology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Nephrology, Urology, Transplants, Nuclear Medicine, Medical Imaging and Radiology. It also houses a Blood bank and Laboratory. With the help of ISRO, Narayana Hrudayalaya has pioneered some of the aspects of Telemedicine.

Cardiology
Narayana Hrudayalaya performs approximately 24 open heart surgeries and 25 catheterization procedures a day, almost eight times the average at other Indian hospitals. In cardiology, the hospital specialises in Interventional Cardiology, Electrophysiology and Pediatric Cardiology, and also performs cardiac surgeries like Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG), Redo Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, DOR's procedure and the Ross Procedure. A total of 13000 coronary bypass grafting operations have been performed in the hospital. The hospital also acts as a philanthropist by charging less than the normal cost for procedures like angiogram and cardiac surgery to people who cannot afford to pay the huge costs. Narayana Hrudayalaya also has 17 Coronary Care units which are based in remote cardiac hospitals but are linked to Narayana Hrudayalaya. These units handle emergency cardiac-related cases and the patients are controlled and stabilised before the cardiac specialists are consulted. The hospital also runs postgraduate programs for doctors and other medical staff on heartcare and also offers India's only formal training program for pediatric cardiac surgery.

Tele-medicine
The telemedicine service was started in the hospital in the year 2002 to cater mainly to the rural populace in the country. The telemedicine network of the hospital connects to countries like Malyasia, Mauritius and Pakistan; with most of the cases referred through telemedicine being cardiac ones. ECG reports, Audio/Visual data, CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and their analysis are exchanged via the telephone line, broadband connection or satellite. The hospital uses a telemedicine ECG machine manufactured by Schiller India, a Germany-based company. The telemedicine services provided by the hospital are free and more than 21000 cases have been referred using this service. Narayana Hrudayalaya is also a part of the "The Karnataka Telemedine Project" which was inaugurated on April 8, 2002 and links two rural hospitals in Saragur, Karnataka viz. the Chamarajnagar District Hospital and the Vivekananda Memorial Hospital with the Narayana Hrudayalaya.