Tele medicine for rural Nepal ??

Problem: "Many public health centers in the rural areas of the country have remained without doctors for several months. Reportedly, 54 health centers in 36 districts and some district hospitals are without doctors as they are reluctant to practice in remote places like Mugu, Rolpa, Dolpa, and others, where living conditions are harsh and luxury a far cry. In Tahu health centre, Palpa, for instance, a doctor has remained absent from duty for 11 straight months and that too without informing the authorities. On an average, doctors remain absent from duty for as long as six months. " Click here to read more

Solution ?: "Telemedicine uses ICT to "provid[e] accessible, cost-effective, high-quality health care services," in the words of a recent WHO Global Observatory for eHealth report. Telemedicine models, in which rural patients are connected to trained physicians over telephone or Internet, can become the first point of access for a variety of illnesses and diseases such as eye related issues, intestinal problems, infections and heart disease. Most importantly, patients get into the health system early and do not delay care seeking for fear of transportation and costs.

Today, CHMI profiles more than 55 telemedicine programs globally including 24 in India (program implementers and CHMI's partners in 16 countries are continually adding new programs to the open database)." Click here to read more