Telemedicine will have a great impact

2007.09.18 by Jan Fredrik Frantzen

The shortage of qualified health staff is one of the greatest challenges in the Third World. Here, telemedicine can make an important contribution, and will have a great impact in the coming years.

Erik Solheim, the Norwegian Minister of International Development, believes that telemedicine can make an important contribution to the rehabilitation and education of health staff in developing countries during the coming years. On 4 September, he visited the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine. From left: Erik Solheim, Gunhild Johansen (Tromsø Socialist Left Party) and Tor Ingebrigtsen, head of the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN). In the background is Sture Pettersen, the acting head of the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine.

These were the words of the Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim, when he visited the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NST) on 4 September.

After receiving an in-depth introduction to the NST's responsibilities as a Collaborating Centre for the World Health Organization (WHO), the Minister listened with great interest as advisers from the NST presented an ongoing project in the Palestinian regions.

"Breaking down the wall with telemedicine"

During the 1980s, Solheim himself worked with the rehabilitation of people with war injuries in Palestine through Handikapforbundet, the Norwegian association for disabled people.

The NST is now in full swing with launching a digital video network between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem to make this type of rehabilitation work easier.

This will make it possible to link up patients and specialists without requiring them to use substantial resources on trying to get between the different centres. The aim is that the rehabilitation centres in these cities will be able to communicate with each other using videoconferencing.

"What we are struggling with right now is in fact to get the videoconferencing equipment to the fourth city in the project, Gaza. We have not received permission to transport it from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In the other cities, installation of the equipment will be completed this week," reports the project manager at the NST, Jan Hugo Olsen.

Great potential

Solheim was able to confirm the potential of this telemedicine project himself, as he stated that it is virtually impossible to travel between the Palestinian areas at present. For the civilian population, these areas are in practice closed off from the outside world.

"If it is possible to succeed in exchanging information of vital medical importance in these areas, nothing could surpass that," commented Solheim.

Other projects at the NST were also presented to the Minister of International Development. These include the development of Internet courses for the education of orthopaedic surgeons at Master's level in developing countries. In some countries that have been ravaged by war, the need for construction and fitting of prostheses is enormous. Unfortunately, the supply of qualified orthopaedic surgeons is not nearly enough to meet the need.

In addition, Solheim was presented with an overview of the expansion of telemedicine in his homeland, and the commitment to establishing telemedicine services in the Norwegian municipalities.

Contact person at the NST

If you have questions about the the visit by Minister of International Development Erik Solheim, you can contact the head of the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, Sture Pettersen, at mobile telephone (+47) 917 03 299 or email sture.pettersen@telemed.no. You can also read more about the Palestine project on these pages:

E-mail this

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter