NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Doctors at hospitals in Tamale and Nsawam, Ghana, are delivering new levels of lifesaving healthcare to remote areas of the country without traveling to see patients in person. Mahiri Mobile Services of Accra has outfitted nurses in rural villages in with wireless tablets that deliver high quality, live medical-grade video(TM) back to the doctors in Tamale and Nsawam for medical advice. A wide variety of illnesses and medical conditions are being treated that would otherwise not be cared for, ranging from skin disorders and infections to neurological conditions to maternity and pre-natal care.

“We are now addressing some of the cases that would not have come to the hospital due to a lack of money for travel or a lack of knowledge about access to our hospital,” stated Dr. Sophie Winful at Nsawam District Hospital in eastern Ghana.

Patients are seen at home, in remote clinics, in schools or in community gatherings by traveling nurses trained to use the new technology. This mobile video platform was developed by telmedx of San Diego, California, and it allows a doctor on a web browser to examine patients over the high-resolution cameras of mobile phones and tablets for live, real-time consultations. Doctors can also take high-resolution photos of patient conditions from a web browser by remotely controlling the back cameras of wireless phones and tablets. The live video and still photos appear side-by-side on a computer screen, and the photos can easily be saved into medical records by the doctors.