Telemedicine has been of great assistance at Haydom hospital- Dr. Naaman

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Almost every day in the morning, I come here to observe the surrounding hospital.  Once I subscribe one of Haydom Satellite Dispensaries, I can immediately find out if somebody from anywhere has a question or if I have another house study or somebody has called in through my mobile phone seeking for assistance.  Therefore, I get here in the morning, I log in, once I come across any message as a Radiologist, I sent the case to Surgeon Doctor to attend to it.  This is mostly done through ipath system or via telephone” Dr. Naaman

It is evident that majority of Tanzanians stays in rural areas, where access to quality health services is a challenge. This is due to numerous shortcoming including inadequate medical experts, equipment as well as easy access to medicine.  The government in collaboration with various stakeholders, has demonstrated strong commitment in giving priority to improving such services, focusing on the balanced proportions in health services delivery to both urban and rural areas

Telemedicine has played a pivotal role in enabling access to medical treatment, particularly to people living in rural areas in which the unavailability of medical expertise is evident. Haydom referral hospital is one among several others using Telemedicine system in giving out and receiving medical consultancies from various high ranking medical doctors in the world via Internet.  This hospital is owned by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT), Northern Central Diocese

Dr. Naftari Naaman is a radiologist and champion user of Telemedicine at Haydom hospital says “we, here at Haydom hospital, we commenced the use of Telemedicine since 2005.  This service has been of great assistance, as it has offered a potential help to our Doctors especially when they fail to diagnose the illness, they seek for another alternative.  They would switch into the connected computer device, share the illness to other medical practitioners around the globe for further help”

This modern technology enables the patient to get referral service where He/She is.  This has helped in reducing the transport cost covering long distances in accessing health services. Equipment needed to enable Telemedicine at a particular hospital are Camera, Internet connection, Smartphone and Ipad.  All these gadgets are applicable in telemedicine

Nicodemu Bakhe is a Laboratory technologist at Haydom hospital elaborates that, Telemedicine helps their unit in diagnosing patients’ illnesses eg Doctors when diagnosing and taking the specimen to the laboratory.  They are the ones responsible to prepare it in accordance with the prescription. At the end, they take a photo of it, and take it to the specialist

On her side, Pauline Kimollo is the ELCT IT Medical Unit Manager, whose office is situated in the Headquarters of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.  This unit is responsible in co-coordinating all health-related projects as far as IT is concerned. Pauline is saying that the project initiated in 2006, to date, the hospitals are spread over the whole country, including the Haydom Hospital.  This is one among several hospitals doing well in this project.  As supervisors of the project, they used to assist implementers, capacitate them on how best to use the program.  But also, create a linkage between Stakeholders through various means, including meetings, workshops so as to share experience and to add more knowledge to the project executors.

Besides, Dr. Naaman is mentioning some of the benefits since started using Telemedicine service as it has really helped the patients.  “I remember to have one case where a child had a swollen head.  We later realized it was a boil, which needed a small surgery to drain it off.  We could not detect it at the beginning.  But when we got the advice from our colleagues, we managed to do a head surgery.  The child recovered at the end.  Therefore, I don’t know exactly how other patients are faring, but we have helped many” says Dr. Naaman

Telemedicine is a relatively new development in the health sector whereby modern communication technology enables doctors in rural areas to call in the help of specialized doctors in larger, academic hospitals to the right course of treatment. Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) has produced video documentary to show the use and benefits of Telemedicine at Haydom hospital.