Telemedicine, eHealth & Health Informatics

Biography

Biography: Hoda Dahroug

Abstract

While many forward strides had been made over recent years in the Egyptian health ecosystem, in terms of overall mortality rates, vaccination and immunization efforts, and expansion and improvement of medical infrastructure, some challenges remained unresolved. One major challenge is unequal distribution of resources between cities and rural governorates as the specialized medical services are located in the country’s major cities. To receive medical services a patient usually must travel to either the capital of the governorate he/she is in, or travel to the capital city of the country, incurring high costs of transportation, and rendering it quite a difficult journey for severely ill patients. Women are more severely affected than men because traditional customs prevent them from travelling unaccompanied. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of successful implementation of each telemedicine session, and highlights the possible policy implications for future expansion of a workable model. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: As the project aimed at improving medical services to rural population in general, the following methods were used to field needs assessment studies, surveys, and focus groups discussions. Findings: offering remote telemedicine diagnostic services would be a major asset to such communities. Furthermore, women benefitted from the project due to the fact that women in these areas usually face cultural and traditional barriers preventing them from travelling freely if unaccompanied by a male guardian, rendering it very difficult for them to receive medical services from distant cities Conclusion & Significance: the future vision of the project shall expand the model into all of Egypt’s marginalized regions, through the creation of strategic partnerships with major health consultation institutions.