Naoki Nakashima

PORTABLE HEALTH CLINIC: A New Approach of Telemedicine Service for Unreached Communities

Absence of professional doctors and lack of hospitals in the remote villages of the developing countries are the main obstacles for ensuring basic healthcare service. The Portable Health Clinic (PHC)system, also called “Doctor in the Box,” has been developed as an advanced telemedicine system, enabling primary healthcare services to the doorstep of the rural communities in affordable price. PHC is a box w/ installed medical sensors and internet connectivity that enables sharing patient's vital information to the remote doctor and video conferencing between doctor-patient for direct consultancy. Developed by Grameen Communications of Bangladesh and Kyushu Univ. under a joint project, it has been providing healthcare service to more than 40,000 patients in rural Bangladesh. Although this system has been replicated in India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Liberia, there is still a lot of opportunities for further development of the system and expansion of the service to other parts of the world.

Vidyo