E-Mail Used To Help Iraq Doctors Treat Patients
Date : 15 Aug 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkFearing they would have to abort the baby to save the mother, her doctors asked for help from the Swinfen Charitable Trust -- a British charity that links up doctors in wartorn or impoverished nations with Western specialists through the Internet.
The Iraqi doctors e-mailed details of their patient's condition to the charity, which forwarded them to an obstetrician in Britain and an anaesthetist in Spain who were part of the trust's network of volunteers.
"After two and a half weeks, we had a healthy mother and baby go home," said Lord Swinfen, who founded the charity with his wife. "It is amazing what a few e-mails and digital pictures were able to do."
Since 1998, the Swinfen Charitable Trust has worked worldwide, from Antarctica to the Solomon Islands. With a roster of more than 380 Western doctors, they provide a free, medical match-making service that helps doctors and patients with few options.
The charity uses a basic version of telemedicine. Doctors are given a digital camera, and e-mail photos, a patient history and any other relevant material, like X-rays, to the Swinfens. The couple then forwards those requests to one or more volunteer doctors, who usually respond within two days.
In the United States and other Western countries, telemedicine generally involves video links to examine patients or medical information in specialties such as dermatology, cardiology, and mental health.
In the last few years, nearly one-fifth of the Swinfen charity's cases have come from Iraq. Nearly 40 hospitals across the country are now linked to the network, and some doctors said the charity is more useful than traditional U.N. aid organizations.
Most U.N. agencies refuse to work permanently in Iraq, preferring to base their operations in neighboring...