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Norwegian telemedicine could break through the wall in Palestine
Since the intifada started four years ago, the construction of the wall, together with military checkpoints and strict travel restrictions, has made it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to move around in and between the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. Gaza is almost hermetically sealed and isolated from the rest of Palestine. The situation has made it virtually impossible for the national rehabilitation centres, which provide specialized services to people with disabilities, to work together. Another consequence is that international specialists hesitate to travel to the Palestinian areas to help with training and guidance.
Isolated
"Before the intifada we regularly worked together with hospitals in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem," says Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, which is Gaza's only rehabilitation centre. "In recent years it has been impossible to exchange expertise and send patients between hospitals as needed. It has become very difficult for our staff to travel abroad to receive training, and it is also not easy to persuade international specialists to visit us and train our staff. The result is that our hospital in Gaza is isolated not only from the rest of the world, but also from the Palestinian centres outside Gaza. With telemedicine equipment available, we have the opportunity to resume working together with colleagues both in Palestine and abroad," says Abbas.
A new study shows that Norwegian expertise in telemedicine can be an effective aid to counter the consequences of the political situation in Palestine. Telemedicine involves offering health services to patients regardless of distance through the use of videoconferencing and communication with images, sound and text over the Internet. The Government has also spoken out in favour of strengthening and focusing Norwegian commitment in areas of special interest for developing countries and where Norway has unique competence. Telemedicine has received special mention as such an area. Among other resources, Norway has the World Health Organization's first and only Collaborating Centre for telemedicine.
Shows results
The four rehabilitation centres in Palestine are supported by the Norwegian Association of the Disabled (NHF), which for more than a decade has operated a programme to develop the rehabilitation sector in the country. At the request of the centres, the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NST), Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital Trust and NHF recently visited Palestine to investigate the possibilities for establishing a telemedicine network between Ramallah, Bethlehem, Gaza and Jerusalem, and between the centres and the communities abroad. The preliminary study "Breaking the Wall in Palestine with Telemedicine" (link) shows that it is technically possible to develop a network for overcoming the obstacles that the rehabilitation centres face. The study was funded by Innovation Norway, a state-owned company which promotes industrial development, and Atlas-alliansen, an alliance of Norwegian organizations for disabled people which contributes aid to people with disabilities in poverty-stricken areas of the world.
Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital Trust is now planning an extensive training programme together with three of the centres. The aim is to improve the quality of the specialized rehabilitation centres. Much of the training and follow-up of the programme will take place through regular videoconferences. This reduces the length of expensive training visits in Palestine to a minimum, ensures close follow-up of the training and enables several specialists from Sunnaas to contribute to the training programme.
"In the future we hope that people with disabilities who need specialized rehabilitation services will be able to get appropriate help wherever the specialist is," says Onar Aanestad, the local representative for the Norwegian Association of the Disabled in Palestine. "For example, with the help of video transmission a patient and a doctor in Gaza can meet a specialist in Ramallah or Oslo. Together they can see, hear and talk to each other on a TV screen. The specialist can help the doctor in Gaza to make the correct diagnosis, give advice on further treatment and assist in the analysis of tests and images. A telemedicine network can make a strong contribution to improving the access of people with disabilities to the services they are entitled to," concludes Aanestad.
Read the report: "Breaking the Wall in Palestine with Telemedicine" (.pdf)
Questions may be directed to:
- The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine: Tove Sørensen, Head, WHO Collaborating Centre for Telemedicine, telephone +47 911 95696, e-mail: tove.sorensen@telemed.no or Jan-Hugo Olsen, special consultant, telephone +47 41515095, jan.hugo.olsen@telemed.no
- Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital Trust: Marianne Holth, International Unit, telephone +47 971 53904, e-mail: marianne.holth@sunnaas.no
- Innovation Norway: Knut Larsen, telephone +47 900 30220, e-mail: knut.larsen@invanor.no
- The Norwegian Association of the Disabled: Onar Aanestad, local representative in Palestine, telephone +972 54 566 1078, e-mail: onar_diakonia@palnet.com
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