The Biomedical Engineering and Telemedicine Group of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM in Spanish) and the non governmental organization Engineering Without Frontiers (ISF in Spanish) are leading the "Hispano-American Health Link" program (EHAS in Spanish), to develop low-cost telecommunication systems and information services specially designed for rural primary health care personnel of isolated areas in developing countries.
The EHAS program has five lines of work:
1) Research on the communication and information needs of rural
health personnel in developing countries,
2) R&D on voice and data communication systems designed according
with conditions of rural areas,
3) R&D on information services systems suited to the needs of
health personnel,
4) Deployment of those services and systems through pilot
projects, and
5) Evaluation of the impact of these telemedicine systems on
health services.
This presentation will present the results of each line of work, specially those results verified from fieldwork, and the future plans of the EHAS program.