State Department, IBM, build telehealth bridge to Pakistan
Heather B. Hayes
A telemedicine project by the U.S. State Department, IBM and other public and private organizations has enabled medical specialists to treat patients in remote, medically under-served areas of northern Pakistan, some of whom have suffered for years with easily treatable diseases.
Using WiMAX wireless broadband technology, videoconferencing, and the Internet, the Pakistan Telemedicine Project has connected a central coordinating facility at the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, with a spoke hospital in District Attock, a rural area with few doctors and a limited supply of medical resources.
Since late August, the program has been running virtual clinics in dermatology and ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialties, performing radiology and providing virtual grand rounds to educate local healthcare providers.
“We’ve had patients show up who haven’t been seen by a physician in 10, 20, even 30 years,” said Dr. Richard Bakalar, chief medical officer for IBM.
“Now these patients are hearing about this and coming from all over to register for these clinics. And the doctors and health care personnel are very excited that they’re going to be able to treat patients they previously couldn’t.”
To mount the network, Motorola and Wateen Telecom, based in Pakistan, are supplying the WiMAX technology. The Department of Defense’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center will provide four Army medical consultants, including a cardiologist, opthamologist and trauma specialist.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has given $80,000 to pay for the cost of two independent assessments of the project. And Medweb, Inc., which worked with IBM to start a similar telemedicine project on Tristan de Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited island, is providing telemedicine software, servers and medical input devices.
Ferial Saeed, deputy U.S. coordinator and office director for International Communications and Information Policy at the State Department, said the initial goal was to develop a project that could showcase the transformative power of telecommunications technology.
Pakistan was chosen as the initial site because health care is a service that the government has difficulty delivering to a broad swath of its Population. More than 75 percent of the country’s 173 million residents live in rural areas, but only 22 percent of its physicians practice there.
Pakistani officials have been active partners in the effort, Saeed says, and the goal is to make the project self-sustaining in 18 months.
“We would like to pull out of it completely so that the Pakistani government works directly with Wateen, which is providing the technology,” she said.
In the meantime, the agency will determine practical funding
streams and expand coverage within Pakistan before replicating the solution
in other countries. Already, the agency has provided funding to IBM Pakistan
to set up a second spoke hospital in another remote region with Telemedicine
capabilities.