Doctors save lives abroad using a new software

Global Business

Medical care remains expensive in many countries around the world. Some hospitals in Africa cannot afford to have enough highly skilled doctors full time. But new software is now filling that gap and saving lives of many.

CCTV America’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

Andrew Mutai had the scare of his life last September on a road in western Kenya when his motorcycle hit a pothole.

He crashed to the ground, broke his neck and suffered an open brain injury. Andrew was rushed to Tenwek Hospital where a CT scan was performed and a risky transfer to a larger hospital was ruled out.

“We got feedback that the C spine fracture was a stable one. As long as we left him in a collar, we did not need to transfer him,” Dr. Mike Chupp, Medical Director of Tenwek Hospital said.

The feedback came from a radiologist in America, like Dr. Josh Bryant.

From his Golden, Colorado home, Bryant spends time away from his private practice reading and interpreting images of Tenwek Hospital patients. Tenwek has no permanent radiologist, so three dozen U.S. doctors now provide that service.

Bryant volunteers for a teleradiology company called StatRad, whose product RadConnect allows large imaging files to be transferred quickly and securely from one location to another.

The long-distance consults help Tenwek doctors better tailor their treatments. Unnecessary procedures are avoided. Diseases are spotted earlier than they would be otherwise.

StatRad’s software, provided free of charge, has sparked interest in other countries, said Claude Hooton, the company’s president. “It’s absolutely the wave of the future,” Hooton said.