There is a desperate need to improve primary healthcare, and financial and human resources are often stretched to the limit. With this in mind, outsourcing company Barnstone has partnered with mobile technology innovators and a consortium of private sector clinicians on a pilot project.
According to the organisation, the endeavour involves the deployment of teleradiology technology that facilitates the transmission of radiology images, such as X-rays, CTs, and MRIs, from one location to another for interpretation and consultation, on remote healthcare sites. The project aims to improve the healthcare of communities in rural areas.
Barnstone director Jacques Mulder says the bureaucracy surrounding securing critical funding is often an inhibiting factor, even with government's open commitment and support in this area.
He says bringing medical services to some of the more isolated locations in southern Africa is crucial nowadays. “Sometimes it is up to the private sector to step up and shoulder some of the responsibility,” he adds.
“Teleradiology has been around since the early nineties and has been widely employed throughout first-world countries as a means to trim costs and ease pressure on clinical staff in understaffed radiology departments,” he adds.
With the aid of teleradiology, a local technician that is qualified to provide basic radiography services can enable specialist practitioners to evaluate images and recommend appropriate action from their metropolitan-based practices, explains Mulder.
“The technology uses standard network technologies such as the Internet, telephone lines, wide area network, or a local area network, making it a practical and affordable option on rural sites,” he says.
Corporations that have major rural operations, such as mines, often have a significant workforce, Mulder points out. When combined with the communities that develop around such operations, there's a constant demand for healthcare services, including radiology.
The biggest advantage is that highly-skilled and often scarce specialist skills such as radiology are made available to patients in rural areas, notes Mulder. This can reduce waiting times and costs, while at the same time facilitating equitable diagnosis.
Mulder says SA is endowed with considerable intellectual and technological wealth, but this tends to cluster in and around major metropolitan areas. “Sadly, this leaves many of our rural communities at a disadvantage when it comes to healthcare.”
He adds that this initiative is just the start, and that Barnstone is exploring similar projects which it hopes will bring care to those that have previously been excluded.
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