CAF will present results of Telemedicine project implemented in Potosi

(La Paz, March 24^th, 2013). For the past eighteen months, the population of the municipalities of Cotagaita, Vitichi and Tazna, in the Department of Potosi in Bolivia, has had access to specialized medical services  thanks to the project Strengthening of primary health services through the implementation of a comprehensive Telemedicine system, supported by CAF, Development Banks of Latin America, and implemented by Ayuda en Acción (Help in Action) and CIES, member organizations of the Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral (PROCOSI)(Coordination Program for Comprehensive Health). 

The project consists of taking advantage of information and communication technology (ICT) to bring health to populations that live in faraway places and who do not have specialized medical services close by.

Thus, rural doctors in the mentioned municipalities provide services to patients and determine the need to contact internists and specialists from the Daniel Bracamonte Hospital in the city of Potosi through the network, where the Triage Center was installed, through which specialists help in the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. 

The details and results of the project, which are summarized in the publication Telemedicina. Una nueva forma de vivir con salud (Telemedicine. A New Way to Live in Health) will be presented on March 27th, at 17:00, in CAF's Auditorium in La Paz during a seminar which will include the participation of authorities form the Ministry of Health and of the benefitted municipalities, national experts, and guests from Venezuela and Ecuador who successfully applied the technology in their countries. 

Telemedicine or medicine at a distance 

The integrated Telemedicine system works with three components which are closely linked; the Tele-consultation Center, located in the communities where general doctors provide services to patients, and gather the data used by the Telemedicine team; the Triage Center, located in the Daniel Bracamonte Hospital in the city of Potosi, where the internist responds to approximately 80 percent of the consultations; and the specialists of the hospital, who are responsible for answering approximately 20% of the  consultations referred to the  Triage Center. 

The system is totally interconnected thanks to Internet, and uses the Telesing information technology tool developed by TELESALUD Venezuela to carry out the systematization of the information.