Telemedicine in Rural Haiti

Elaine KnightFounder,  LifePaths Global Alliance

Shortly after the devastating earthquake in 2010, LGA embarked on a bold journey to help people in Haiti by utilizing something innovative and technology driven; we implemented a telemedicine project.

We chose a rural village called L’estere, three hours north of Port au Prince, to start this project. This area severely lacked in primary health care needs and with a population of 38,000 it was a perfect pilot site.

LGA set up a video link to our Haitian doctor in Port au Prince, set up a free pharmacy and trained three local people from the village to be the telemedicine assistants who are the “hands of the doctor.”

In August we celebrated two years of our telemedicine clinic being open. We have seen more than 10,000 children, women and men, young and old, by video link. We have saved quite a few lives by identifying serious conditions that were treated in Port au Prince.

For example a quadruple heart surgery for a 21-year-old man who came to our clinic feeling dizzy, rushed him to Port au Prince and saved his life, saving a woman who had a miscarriage but her body became septic with infection because of a partial fetus still in her womb. Our local community was instrumental during the cholera outbreak in 2011 by donating money to buy IV bags. Our clinic is located directly in the centre of the region where cholera originally broke out in 2011, again saving lives.

LGA was recently approached and is now collaborating with Rochester University to help it roll out telemedicine into the 911 emergency response systems in Haiti. The university has a 10-year commission to develop this 911 system and we are honored that they have asked for our expertise on telemedicine rollout and training. In Haiti, if you are in a car accident there is no quick response and people have died waiting for help that might come five or six hours later, so telemedicine will be crucial to have.

There is still so much we can do to keep things progressing in Haiti. We really are making a difference. We need your ongoing support as we continue marching forward in the quest of making a difference in peoples lives.

Please consider getting involved or possibly making a financial donation on our website that will help us continue to expand this program and provide people with the dignity they deserve in getting primary and emergency health care.

Our current wish is to expand one day a week to deal with only women’s health issues.

Please donate at www.lifepathsglobal.org or call 1-866-964-4944 for more information.