A microscope that emails medical images would benefit many hospitals and clinics in remote areas in Sub-Saharan Africa like the Congo.
The Bulape Hospital is a remote reference hospital in central Congo. It supports the Bulape Health Zone which has 30 outlying clinics in really remote villages.
In the fall of 2007, the Ebola virus was contained with the help of Center Disease Control (CDC). The outbreak started in a remote and rural area in central Congo. However, the CDC had to fly in a lab to do onsite testing. Prior to CDC and Doctors with Borders (MSF) intervention, Ebola had spread to other remote areas to include Bulape.
The various viruses could spread world-wide within short period of time. We should transmit the pictures and contain the virus in the place of origin.
Link: A microscope that emails medical images | Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com.
A team of Chinese and U.S. researchers has successfully applied for a patent for a virtual telemicroscope. It is the only one of its kind capable of emailing electronic slides. It has been specifically designed to allow ‘off-site pathologists to diagnose cancer or other diseases in patients living in remote locations around the world,’ like China, where many hospitals don’t have on-site pathologists. Real systems based on this patent have already been deployed. And the results of the first clinical trials are pretty encouraging. Telepathologists reached the same level of diagnostic accuracy as pathologists using standard light microscopy. Using this software, telepathologists were able to remotely deliver their diagnosis in about 15 minutes.
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