Virtual Doctor Project: Telemedicine project in Zambia

“I think there will be less work and we’ll be getting more information on how to go about (treating) chronically ill patients, how to manage them and when we’re referring them we can at least make the patients a little bit stable.”
Ashcroft says the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Zambia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) states that VDP will provide the equipment, training and software for free for the first 12 months, giving the system time to “bed in and have a positive impact on the clinic’s referral rates”. The government is supporting them in motivating and encouraging health staff to use it.
“Following this, we will continue to support the clinical officers, however, a small surcharge will be made to ensure that the system can be upgraded and maintained in the health centres,” Ashcroft told IPS. “All equipment, and licenses for donations is provided by charitable donations, so our aim is to equip the clinics with everything they need for the service to become a self-sustaining, yet integral part of the day-to-day running of the health centres.” The charity is one of the increasing number of NGOs accepting Bitcoin donations.
Andrew Phiri from the MoH is confident the government will be able to support VDP after its first year, stressing it’s a much-needed project.
“We’ve got a lot of people living in rural areas, they have to walk long distances (to clinics). We don’t have a lot of ambulances. You find that our health facilities are not closely linked, they are huge distances apart,” Phiri told IPS.
“Through consultation you are going to give the best quality of care that the patient requires. It will be a very good outcome because, really, in medicine you need to consult, you cannot work alone.”
Source:  Inter Press Service