Telehealth in the Developing World

This book is about telecommunication technologies that have the potential to improve both the quality of and access to health care in the remotest areas of the developing world. Telemedicine has the potential to offer solutions for emergency medical assistance, long-distance consultation, administration and logistics, supervision and quality assurance, and education and training for healthcare professionals and providers. The book is written, according to its publisher, to redress the relative lack of published information on successful telehealth solutions in the developing world. It presents stories on health and information and communication technology (ICT) in the context of practical experience from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is written as a resource for health professionals, development workers, and e-health and telehealth proponents interested in learning about, or contributing to the implementation of, appropriate solutions for an estimated 80% of the world’s population who have mobile phone or internet access.

Contents include the following: Section 1: Background1. Introduction - Richard Wootton, Kendall Ho, Nivritti G. Patil, and Richard E. Scott Section 2: Policy2. Bridging the digital divide: linking health and ICT policy - Joan Dzenowagis 3. Telehealth in developing countries: perspectives from the Philippines - Alvin B. Marcelo 4. Information technology for primary health care in Brazil - Elaine Tomasi, Luiz A Facchini, Elaine Thumé, Maria F.S. Maia, and Alessander Osorio 5. Community-based health workers in developing countries and the role of m-health - Adesina Iluyemi 6. Global e-health policy: from concept to strategy - Richard E. Scott 7. Experiences and lessons learnt from telemedicine projects supported by IDRC - Laurent Elder and Michael Clarke 8. Strategies to promote e-health and telemedicine activities in developing countries - Sisira Edirippulige, Rohana B. Marasinghe, Vajira H.W. Dissanayake, Palitha Abeykoon, and Richard Wootton Section 3: Educational9. Telemedicine in low-resource settings: experience with a telemedicine service for HIV/AIDS care - Maria Zolfo, Verena Renggli, Olivier Koole, and Lut Lynen 10. Medical missions for children: a global telemedicine and teaching network - Philip O. Ozuah and Marina Reznik 11. Telementoring in India: experience with endocrine surgery - Saroj K Mishra, Puthen V. Pradeep, and Anjali Mishra Section 4: Clinical12. Teledermatology in developing countries - Steven Kaddu, Carrie Kovarik, Gerald Gabler, and H Peter Soyer 13. Cross-cultural telemedicine via email: experience in Cambodia and the US - Paul Heinzelmann, Rithy Chau, Daniel Liu, and Joseph Kvedar 14. Telepathology and telecytology in developing countries - Sangeeta Desai 15. Internet based store-and-forward telemedicine for subspecialty consultations in the Pacific region - C. Becket Mahnke, Charles W. Callahan, and Donald A. Person 16. Telehealth support for a global network of Italian hospitals - Gianfranco Costanzo and Paola Monari 17. Telemedicine in Nepal - Mohan R. Pradhan 18. Telemedical support for surgeons in Ecuador - Stephen Cone, Edgar J. Rodas, and Ronald C. Merrell 19. A low-cost international e-referral network - Richard Wootton, Pat Swinfen, Roger Swinfen, and Peter Brooks 20. Telehealth in China: opportunity and challenges - Jie Chen and Zhiyuan Xia 21. Telemedicine in South Africa - Maurice Mars 22. Telemedicine in sub-Saharan Africa - Maurice Mars 23. Telehealth for mountainous and remote areas of northern Pakistan - Hameed A. Khan and Irfan Hayee 24. Teleneurology: past, present and future - Usha K. Misra and Jayantee Kalita 25. Telepaediatric support for a field hospital in Chechnya - Boris A. Kobrisnkiy and Vladimir I. Petlakh 26. Web-based paediatric oncology information and registries: an international perspective - André Nebel de Mello 27. E-health in international networks: new opportunities for collaboration - Shariq Khoja and Azra Naseem Section 5: The Future28. The future use of telehealth in the developing world - Richard Wootton