Landmark Information Group has completed the development of a new mobile telemedicine application for the Virtual Doctors charity. The app will transform the way rural health centres in Zambia access vital advice, diagnosis and treatment support from a pool of qualified UK doctors, in order to deliver vital patient care to people located in some of the poorest parts of Africa.
Virtual Doctors connects African health clinicians with qualified doctors and specialists in the UK, who donate their time for free to offer diagnosis and treatment advice to some of the world’s poorest communities. In particular, Zambia has roughly 1,600 doctors for a population of approximately 14 million. Of these, two thirds of doctors live in urban areas, whereas two thirds of the population live in rural Zambia.
Developed free of charge by seven members of the Landmark team, in approximately 100 days, the new custom-built VDrs mobile application is used on a Tablet PC and makes it simple for Clinical Officers to be able to share patient data with the pool of doctors. With an integrated SIM for mobile connectivity, the app can be used at any time, in any place, and by using the Tablet’s integrated camera, it is easy for Clinical Officers to be able to take photos of patients and attach them to patient records for easy sharing.
The VDrs app replaces an outdated solution that used laptops, wireless USB dongles for Internet connection, plus the need to use an external camera for photos. With the original software requiring Internet connectivity to share patient’s records, it created a real problem if the connection dropped as the case details were lost and needed to be loaded once again.
Commenting on the completion of the new VDrs application, Ian Clarke, Chief Technology Officer from Landmark Information Group, and Trustee of the charity said: “The Virtual Doctors’ vision is to provide isolated Clinical Officers in Zambia with a link to specialist advice and diagnostic expertise, helping them to treat more patients on-site, quickly and effectively. By doing so, it will make a real difference to the thousands of patients in daily need.
By providing access to good broadband, the latest tablet devices, our custom-built app, and a direct line to the pool of qualified doctors who have volunteered their time back in the UK, it is now possible for the clinicians located in Zambia’s rural health centres to be able to easily send and receive information for prompt diagnosis. They can even enter a real-time dialogue about a case, which will enhance the patient experience by reducing the need for return visits or unnecessary hospital appointments. This will minimise the burden on both patients and hospitals, and also ensure patients receive the right treatment, sooner.”
An official handover of the app will be taking place on 20 January where Huw Jones, executive director and founder of The Virtual Doctors will be joined by Tina Coomber and Paul Ross from Landmark Information Group who together will present the new Samsung Galaxy tablets and VDrs telemedicine app to the Clinical Officers in each Rural Health Centre, in the presence of the District Medical Officer (Chief Medic for District) for each District.
Adds Huw Jones, executive director and founder of The Virtual Doctors charity: “We are extremely grateful to the team at Landmark who have donated their time and energies into creating this brand new application which will literally help save lives. The plan is to roll the new Tablet PCs and application out to 13 rural clinics in three districts. We are also in the process of running a crowdfunding campaign to help with the set up costs of three of these sites and will keep expanding our reach as funding allows.”
To add to this, Ian Clarke, recently completed a 700-mile cycle ride for the charity, which took him from Bury St Edmunds, to Paris, Antwerp, Rotterdam and back, raising an additional £2,250 for the charity (of which Landmark contributed £1,000 having generously agreed to match donations received).
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