Botswana-UPenn partnership, Microsoft to launch telemedicine service in Botswana

The Botswana-UPenn Partnership, along with Microsoft, the Botswana Innovation Hub, and others are planning to launch the first telemedicine service in Africa —“Project Kgolagano” — to to people that usually must make a long journey to access specialized care, according to a press release.

“The Microsoft TV White Space project uses wavelength space that is available between TV and radio signals to transmit high speed Internet signals,” Harvey Friedman, MD, director of Botswana-UPenn Partnership, and lead researcher of Project Kgolagano, told Infectious Disease News. “The White Space signals are transmitted by an antenna and can travel approximately 10 kilometers — at that point the signals need to be picked up by a transmitter linked to traditional Internet. The concept of TV White Space is to provide the ‘last mile’ of high speed Internet to reach rural areas. The goal with the Microsoft project is to provide Internet to rural areas of Botswana.”

According to Friedman, Botswana-UPenn Partnership physicians will be available to take consultations in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. They will initially take calls/consultations dealing with screenings for cervical cancer, dermatology, tuberculosis in children and adults and HIV.

“The consultations will include pictures, phone contact and video consults,” he said. “The first phase of the project involves providing consultations to one location in Botswana to test the system and phase 2 will be to expand to two additional locations. The long-term goal is to provide medical consultations to many rural areas in Botswana, and, if successful, the program can be rolled out to other countries in Africa.”

The Botswana-UPenn Partnership was founded in 2001 and is comprised of the Government of Botswana, the University of Botswana and the University of Pennsylvania. The three entities work together to build capacity in sustainable and high quality health care in Botswana through clinical care, research and medical education, according to the release.

“An important component of our program is that the University of Pennsylvania Perelman’s School of Medicine has medical specialists in infectious diseases, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology living and working full time in Botswana,” Friedman said. “They are familiar with how medicine is practiced in Botswana and can provide quality consultations that are practical and realistic based on the treatments available in country. A key for other institutions is to have experts in country who are available to provide consultations.”

Project Kgolagano — which means “to be connected or networked” — will have a specific focus on providing access to specialized maternal medicine aimed at improving the livelihoods of women residing in rural areas.

“With a severe shortage of health care providers in resource limited countries, telemedicine offers an opportunity for expert consultations without requiring patients to travel long distances. The TV White Space project takes telemedicine to a new level by providing access to Internet in remote regions of the country,” he said. — by Jennifer Southall

For more information:

Harvey Friedman, MD, can be reached at Infectious Disease Division, University of Pennsylvania, 3610 Hamilton Walk, 522E Johnson Pavilion, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6073; email: hfriedma@mail.med.upenn.edu.

Disclosure: Friedman reports a grant from Microsoft to support staff and faculty performing the work.