A healthcare group on Saturday launched a 'stroke robot', which will assist experts in diagnosing brain stroke and suggest line of treatment.

The state-of-the-art, wireless and Internet-based robot RP-7 will enable neuro-physicians to speak to the patient, nurses and doctors on duty from the comfort of their offices with the help of a monitor located in the place of the head of the contraption.

"It is important that a brain stroke patient reaches the nearest neurology centre within four hours. These robots will help us cut short the time as vital signs of the patient can be checked and diagnostics could be advised within minutes," Neurology head of Apollo Hospitals Subhashini Prabhakar said.

Apollo Hospitals chairman Pratap C Reddy said, "The technology will cut down costs of treatment...Initially, the RP-7 will be placed here and in due course, seven major centres of Apollo Hospitals will have similar robots."

"RP-7 also allows direct control to medical devices such as electronic stethoscopes, ultrasound, MRI and even transmit medical data to the remote physician," Dr Deepak Arjun Das of Apollo Chennai said.

According to records, rate of deaths due to brain stroke currently stands at 250 per one lakh population in the country.