WaidX: ICT innovation applied to diagnostics saves lives

Developing countries suffer a critical lack of medical pathologists, so their health systems cannot provide a good level of diagnosis for the whole population.
World Health Organization declared the Oncology emergency, due to the increasing tumors incidence in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC).
The Horn of Africa project, carried out in cooperation with APOF NGO and financed by 8 per Mille della Chiesa Valdese, with the aim of countering this trend, provided the right condition to define an innovative telepathology model based on WaidX, our telemedicine platform.
WaidX is able to overcome the limitations due to digital divide by providing stable and secure communication channels (for health applications) even in the most prohibitive shortage of Internet bandwidth and IT resources.

WaidX introduces new working strategies, allowing heath professionals remotely connected to provide training and teleconsultation to operators sited in LMIC. In the most challenging scenario, where the medical pathologist is not locally available, the platform acts like a “virtual pathologist” allowing the real-time diagnosis performed by remote on the slides prepared by the laboratory technicians.
The success of this approach is proven by the first implementation of the Horn of Africa project.
Thanks to APOF NGO, Balbala Hospital hosts the only Pathological Anatomy Department in Djibouti. WaidX turned this department in the first node of an international telepathology network aimed to involve different countries within the Horn of Africa, allowing cancer screening programs and diagnosis for the entire population. 
The next node implementation, already planned in the Pathological Anatomy Department of Hargeisa Group Hospital, in northern Somalia, will demonstrate that an interactive model among professionals resident in different countries can be implemented effectively.
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tag: #WorldConnex, #WaidX, #telePathology, #teleMedicine, #Innovation #ICT #HornOfAfrica