Telemedicine for Africa: collaborative action between Italy and Swaziland against HIV infection

Telemedicine is a powerful tool to support remote
hospitals to promote health in developing countries. However,
Digital Divide is a strong obstacle to the diffusion of this
technology. We developed a Telemedicine platform with a
minimum need of connectivity and software resource and high
usability, to support the Swaziland caregivers in their fight against
the AIDS/HIV disease. The platform offers the possibility of realtime
professional consulting, learning tools, scientific
documentation availability, and data exchange to the physician of
the Siteki Hospital in Swaziland, whose number is severely
insufficient. The platform is supported by the physicians of the
Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital L. Sacco, Milan, Italy, and
has been implemented using the WordPress CMS enhanced with
LMS facilities to ensure an easy management by the African
caregivers. After the positive training and testing stage, we aim to
integrate the platform with the Siteki Hospital information system to
facilitate the clinical data exchange.