Virtual Hospital Clinical Services
The Virtual hospital will be able to provide a full range of clinical services including the following:
1. Virtual Hospital will focus on supporting primary healthcare services, particularly for women and children in the third world. Modern technology linked medical diagnostics will be used for health promotion programmes, prevention, early diagnosis and intervention as well as management of various diseases affecting women, children and other residents in rural areas.
2. Doctors and specialists at the Virtual Hospital Hub will supervise routine pre-natal care and sonogram examinations carried out by midwives and other healthcare providers in rural areas thereby reducing peri-natal and neonatal mortality rates.
3. Internal medicine specialists will make use of high resolution cameras to study skin and mucosal lesions and assist in the diagnosis, management and control of various infectious diseases including HIV and AIDS.
4. Cardiologists and surgeons will evaluate patients with cardiovascular diseases in rural communities at a distance, without patients leaving their community health centres. Medical experts at Virtual Hospital Hubs will supervise local healthcare providers in assessing heart and lung sounds using magnifying electronic stethoscopes thereby aiding the prevention of strokes, heart attacks and limb loss from vascular occlusion.
5. Ophthalmologists from tertiary centres will examine eyes and retinas of patients in remote rural areas.
6. Specialists will supervise ear, nose and throat examinations with laryngoscopes and otoscopes. They will direct endoscopic examinations of upper and lower gastro-intestinal tracts and possibly prevent fatal bleeding from these organs, and earlier detection of malignant disease.
Other key specialist services will be:
Tele-radiology – Hubs and ‘Spokes’ will be able to transmit digital radiological images (e.g. X-ray images) from one location to another for the purpose of interpretation and consultation.
Tele-pathology – Hubs and ‘Spokes’ will be able to transmit digitized pathological results (e.g. microscopic images of cells) for the purpose of interpretation and consultation.
Tele-dermatology – Hubs and ‘Spokes’ will be able to transmit medical information concerning skin conditions (e.g. tumours of the skin) for the purpose of interpretation and consultation.
Tele-psychiatry – Hubs and ‘Spokes’ will be used for psychiatric evaluations and consultation via video and telephony.
Telemedicine services planned
- Allergy and Immunology
- Anesthesiology
- Colon & Rectal Surgery
- Dermatology
- Emergency medicine
- Family medicine
- General Consultation
- Internal Medicine – Adolescent
- Internal Medicine – Cardiology
- Internal Medicine – Endocrinology
- Internal Medicine – Gastroenterology
- Internal Medicine – General
- Internal Medicine – Geriatrics
- Internal Medicine – Hematology
- Internal Medicine – Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine – Nephrology
- Internal Medicine – Oncology
- Internal Medicine – Pulmonology
- Internal Medicine – Rheumatology
- Medical Genetics
- Neurological surgery
- Nuclear Medicine
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Otolaryngology
- Pathology
- Pediatrics
- Plastic Surgery
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
- Surgery
- Thoracic surgery
- Urology
