Mahiri Mobile Services Limited is a managed mobile services provider that delivers application solutions for the workforce on the move. Mahiri provides relevant, agile and cost effective workflow solutions. With headquarters at the Janssen Labs West Coast Research Center in San Diego, CA, telmedx provides live high quality live medical-grade video™ from wireless phones and tablets to any web browser. The company’s HIPAA- and HITECH-compliant telemedicine platform helps reduce costs, increase efficiency, manage risk and create new revenue opportunities for healthcare providers.
Mahiri-telmedx is a venture between Mahiri mobile services, a Ghanaian managed mobile services company and telmedx a San Diego based telemedicine solutions provider.
The venture has been piloting the Mahiri-telmedx remote diagnostic solution since September 2013 with amazing success.
Nurses go out daily to visit patients in their rural communities at home, in rural clinics, mobile clinics, attend community gatherings and participate in special clinic day’s setup for pregnant mothers. According to one of the nurses, “Previously you maintained patient records in a book in your handbag, with this scenario when you capture the data it goes straight to your supervisor and then the doctor. This is boosting home visits and schools visits and we know more about the types of ailments and skin disorders”. She said
Adam Abass, consultant neurosurgeon and key sponsor at Tamale teaching hospital in the northern region of Ghana says “without a solution of this nature, remote areas will remain deprived of quality medical care due to poor access roads. Solutions like Mahiri-telmedx’s remote diagnostics system is a cheaper and effective alternative for addressing remote and difficult-to-reach areas.”
For Diana Dwamena, founder of Mahiri mobile services, “The video resolution and image quality are unparalleled. At first, the doctors and nurses were sceptical, but now they realise that they can deliver the quality of care they desire confidently with the Mahiri-telmedx solution. This is the way forward.” She concluded
Nurses gather patient information and allocate patient numbers. The solution is intended to fit into their normal processes of engaging with patients so if the nurse establishes that the ailment countered is treatable he/she specifies treatment and the follow on action is recorded on the system. The patient record is stored on the system and can be accessed by those with relevant access rights. This means the doctors can access the patient records for evaluation purposes at a later date. Where the nurse encounters complicated cases that need to be referred to the doctor, they dial the doctor for a call and both access the Mahiri-telmedx system where the doctor can observe the patient remotely and instruct the nurse on actions to take. The doctor during this process may take snapshots of specific body parts by instructing the nurse on where to position the Mahiri-telmedx tablet device. Images taken by the doctor are placed in the electronic patient record so that image, patient record and doctor’s report are stored in one file.
Videos can also be captured and Akis Afoko, urologist at Tamale heaching hospital sees a great opportunity in using this feature for teaching purpose. He believes it will enable students to observe live and interactive diagnosis and operations taking place.
Kemi Ajumobi
