The French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children’s eHealth programme, bringing expertise from around the world to the remotest parts of Afghanistan, hit a milestone in June – 20,000 teleconsultations.
The case for an affordable, accessible eHealth programme for Afghanistan has always been clear. With just 2 doctors for every 10,000 people, it is difficult for the country’s 32 million people to obtain timely access to quality healthcare. Worse, security challenges and distance present significant barriers to patients seeking specialist care.
While eHealth may be common in the developed world, it is leap-frog technology for Afghanistan. Ten years ago, the country had no telephones; today, mobile phone coverage blankets the nation.
Since the programme’s launch almost 10 years ago, in 2007, specialists in Paris and Karachi have supported local doctors in tackling many complicated cases and providing access to specialist care, helping patients address the cost, inconvenience and delays of travelling to see a doctor.
Aysha and Sidiqa, conjoined twins, are one of the many remarkable eHealth stories. Born joined at the abdomen, they were lucky to have access to specialists when they were just eight days old. After a live teleconsultation between doctors at the Faizabad Provincial Hospital in Badakshan and Dr Jalil Wardak, FMIC’s head of paediatric surgery, the girls’ father was persuaded to bring the twins to the hospital. Haider Mohammad travelled 300 km to Kabul for the girls’ life-saving operation that successfully separated them.
“I was worried that all this might be a dream. But when I saw my daughters sleeping in separate beds, I realised that my dream had come true,” said the mother of the twin girls who are now healthy and 10 months old.
In the early days, the eHealth programme was between FMIC in Kabul and AKUH in Karachi and focused on radiology processing 5,700 images to date.
A year later, in 2008, FMIC extended the reach of its expertise by tying up with the Bamyan Provincial Hospital in north-central Afghanistan and in 2010 with the Faizabad Provincial Hospital in Badakshan in the country’s northeast near the border with Tajikistan. These partnerships have seen FMIC’s specialists review 2,765 tests in tele-radiology and tele-pathology and provide live consultations in 11,694 cases.
In 2013, with the support of telecom operator Roshan Telecommunication, FMIC was linked with Mirwais Regional Hospital, enabling remote eLearning sessions to take place. The capacity building initiative has benefited over 700 healthcare practitioners in the southern province of Kandahar.
FMIC currently has access to expertise at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi and the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris, France. In turn, it provides services to the provincial hospitals in Bamyan, Faizabad and Kandahar.
Afghanistan’s eHealth network is being supported physically and financially through a public-private partnership. FMIC and the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi provide the clinical expertise; the Aga Khan Health Service, Afghanistan manages the hospitals in the provinces of Bamyan and Badakhshan for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health; and the private sector, through Roshan Telecom, supplies the telecommunication services. AKDN eHealth resource centre provide the technical expertise underpinning the initiative.
