Multidisciplinary Teleconsultation In Developing Countries

This book presents a replicable model of multidisciplinary teleconsultation, designed and set up by Global Health Telemedicine, that offers very significant health benefits in remote and rural areas of developing countries. The model is based on experiences gained in sub-Saharan Africa while training and cooperating with local health professionals within the DREAM program, managed by the Community of Sant’Egidio. This program has to date treated almost 300,000 patients across many countries and has provided health education and disease prevention training to tens of millions. It originated in the context of the fight against AIDS but has been extended to encompass other pathologies and to exploit the capabilities of new telemedicine technologies that allow multispecialist teleconsultation (hence the acronym now represents “Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means”). In addition to thorough description of the program, readers will find reflections and analysis on logistical, technical, sociological, and epidemiological issues. The book is divided into thematic chapters with easy-to-understand graphics. It will be a readily accessible source of information for professionals in international cooperation and global health students and professionals.

A new addition to the successful telehealth series,Telehealth in the Developing Worldaims to balance the relative lack of published information on successful telehealth solutions in the developing world.

Telemedicine and Mobile Surgery in Extreme Conditions: The Ecuadorian Experience -- Telemedicine in the Indian Context: An Overview -- Telehealth: The Backbone of Healthcare Financing -- VII. New Frontiers for Telemedicine Applications -- Telepresence and Telemedicine in Trauma and Emergency Care Management -- Telepresence and Telementoring in Surgery -- Medical Care from Space: Telemedicine -- VIII. New Initiatives in Virtual Education -- The French Language Virtual Medical University -- Creating A Virtual Sanctuary for Scholars -- Epilogue -- Author Information -- Author Index

The story of an innovative program of treatment for AIDS in Africa that succeeded in the face of international development agencies’ “afro pessimism” Until this century, Western governments and foundations framing policies for AIDS relief in Africa maintained that prevention alone was a preferable alternative to prevention-plus-treatment, which would be costly and impractical in Africa, or would benefit only the prosperous and well-connected. Sant'Egidio’s Dream argues that this initial, failed approach to AIDS in African countries reflects a global moral blindness to the imperative to save lives–which was not lost on the Community of Sant’Egidio, an Italian, Catholic social movement rooted in “the gospel and friendship” and present in 70 countries. Drawing on two decades of peacemaking and humanitarian experience in Africa, the movement grasped the evidence that HIV, if treated, does not lead to AIDS and to death–and saw that treatment gives hope in Africa just as it does in the developed world. By enabling large numbers of people to live with a chronic disease, and involving family and neighbors in free and effective care, it offers a dream of a society surviving and even thriving in spite of HIV. In 2002, Sant Egidio established the DREAM (Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition) project, a community-based approach to the AIDS crisis, rooted in medicine, epidemiology, and public health, that has proven effective in ten countries where it has been implemented–and has emerged as a model for healthcare in the global South.

This book serves the purpose of documenting and promoting African experiences on sustainable development, which encompasses both, formal and non-formal education. Sustainable development is very important to Africa, but there is a paucity of publication which documents and promotes experiences from African countries. Due to their complexity, the interrelations between social, economic and political factors related to sustainable development, especially at universities, need to be better understood. There is also a real need to showcase successful examples of how African institutions are handling their sustainability challenges. It is against this background that this book has been produced. It is a truly interdisciplinary publication, useful to scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies and private companies, undertaking research and/or executing projects focusing on sustainability from across Africa. As African nations strive to pursue the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative to cater for the information needs seen across the continent and foster the dissemination of experiences and case studies, which may support both, on-going and future efforts. The scope of the book is deliberately kept wide, and we are looking for contributions across the spectrum of sustainable development from business and economics, to arts and fashion, administration, environment, languages and media studies.

Innovative developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) irrevocably change our lives and enable new possibilities for society. Telemedicine, which can be defined as novel ICT-enabled medical services that help to overcome classical barriers in space and time, definitely profits from this trend. Through Telemedicine patients can access medical expertise that may not be available at the patient's site. Telemedicine services can range from simply sending a fax message to a colleague to the use of broadband networks with multimodal video- and data streaming for second opinioning as well as medical telepresence. Telemedicine is more and more evolving into a multidisciplinary approach. This book project "Advances in Telemedicine" has been conceived to reflect this broad view and therefore has been split into two volumes, each covering specific themes: Volume 1: Technologies, Enabling Factors and Scenarios; Volume 2: Applications in Various Medical Disciplines and Geographical Regions. The current Volume 2 is structured into the following thematic sections: Cardiovascular Applications; Applications for Diabetes, Pregnancy and Prenatal Medicine; Further Selected Medical Applications; Regional Applications.

The two-volume set LNCS 12013 and 12014 constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Aided Systems Theory, EUROCAST 2019, held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, in February 2019. The 123 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 172 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Part I: systems theory and applications; pioneers and landmarks in the development of information and communication technologies; stochastic models and applications to natural, social and technical systems; theory and applications of metaheuristic algorithms; model-based system design, verification and simulation. Part II: applications of signal processing technology; artificial intelligence and data mining for intelligent transportation systems and smart mobility; computer vision, machine learning for image analysis and applications; computer and systems based methods and electronic technologies in medicine; advances in biomedical signal and image processing; systems concepts and methods in touristic flows; systems in industrial robotics, automation and IoT.

This book represents the most current development on the expanding and changing field of telemedicine and e-health, especially in the developing countries. Many things have changed since the publication of the first book in 2004 (Establishing Telemedicine in Developing Countries: From Inception to Implementation). Telemedicine has become more popular, and still continues to grow. While there are many good books and materials on telemedicine, this publication can be seen at the work of reference for all of those who want to practice telemedicine and e-health, particularly in developing countries. This publication deals with ways to establish telemedicine and e-health system, not only in the developing countries, but also in the developed world. Hopefully, this book will be a guide that reflects the status of telemedicine at the given time. It is dedicated to all future generations of telemedicine and e-health students which include healthcare practitioners, administrators, policy makers, technical professionals and others.