Telemedicine is an example of innovation during Covid.
When people are afraid to visit a doctor, the public health consequences are dire.
Covid-19 restrictions and fear of government hospitals made people scared of visiting our micro-clinics, even for prenatal screenings, checkups and child immunizations. Unite for Health only had 20 patients come to the Eloumden micro-clinic in the whole of September 2020.
“Africa has made significant progress over the past 20 years in stopping malaria from claiming lives. While Covid-19 is a major health threat, it’s critical to maintain malaria prevention and treatment programmes ... We must not turn back the clock.”
Child immunization data showED an alarming trend.
The micro-clinic data: Jan-Sept 2019 had 256 child vaccinations vs. Jan-Sept 2020 had 90. This presents a long-term public health challenge not only to children but to their communities.
most households in Cameroon have a mobile phone.
In response to the Covid-19 public health crisis, Unite for Health launched telemedicine, the first fully operational program in Cameroon. We are grateful to our grant partner, World Connect, and to J&J’s CaringCrowd which enabled us to crowdfund this initiative.
We engaged our communities with banners in the street, announcements on the radio and distributed fliers. When we check in on patients to monitor their progress, we encourage them to tell their friends and families that telemedicine is now available. We also remind people by text message of appointments for screenings, prenatal care and child immunizations.
TELEMEDICINE for maternal health
Charlotte consults with one of our doctors about her pregnancy.
Telemedicine was already helping Unite for Health provide specialized healthcare. For at-risk cardiac patients, new diagnostic tools like the CardioPad can record a patient’s electrocardiogram (EKG) which we send to top cardiologists for remote advice on treatment.
We were happy to see how our program was recognized in the media.
The impact of telemedicine.
We provide telemedicine free of charge for anyone who has an urgent health problem or suspects they have malaria. They get medical advice, a prescription, or instructions to come to a micro-clinic for an in-person assessment. The data tells an interesting story.
Any patient with suspected Covid-19 symptoms is immediately instructed to go to the nearest testing or medical facility.
A senior nurse on a telemedicine call at the micro-clinic in Bonamoussadi.