Barriers to pilot mobile teleophthalmology in a rural hospital in Southern Malawi.

Pan Afr Med J

Southern Africa Medical Unit, Médecins Sans Frontières, Cape Town, Southern Africa.

Published: October 2015

Introduction: Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalences in Sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of eligible HIV-infected people being initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and retained in HIV-care is currently far from adequate. Consequently, many people continue present with advanced immunosuppression at public health facilities, often with undiagnosed opportunistic infections (OIs).

Methods: In this context, mHealth was the innovation chosen to assist Eye Clinical Officers in early diagnosis of HIV-related diseases having eye manifestations in a rural hospital in Thyolo, Southern Malawi.

Results: The mTeleophthalmology program began in October 2013, but was stopped prematurely due to organizational and technological barriers that compromised its feasibility.

Conclusion: Sharing these barriers might be useful to inform the design of similar innovations in other resource-limited settings with a high HIV prevalence and a dearth of eye specialists with capacity to diagnose HIV-related retinopathies.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4345219PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2014.19.136.5196DOI Listing

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