Thanks to the medical skill of Northumbria Healthcare Trust, and the expertise of theatre communications specialists OR Networks, surgeons in Tanzania can now perform laparoscopic surgery with the advice and support of UK counterparts.
As part of a six-year partnership between the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) and the Trust, local surgeons have been trained and mentored by surgeons from Hexham General Hospital to perform “keyhole” procedures. It is hoped the cost-effective procedure will save thousands of lives. A major element of the partnership has been establishment of a telementoring communications link. Working with Northumbria Healthcare Trust, OR Networks visited KCMC in 2008 and, with the support of the Tanzania Telecommunications Company, established a one-way video, and two-way audio, link between the surgeons in Tanzania and their counterparts at Hexham, allowing real-time images and audio from the operating theatre to be transmitted from Tanzania via the internet back to the Hexham surgeons for their input and guidance. Once the link’s integrity had been proven, OR Networks returned to Tanzania in 2009, and again this year, to add two-way video and local links to a lecture theatre. KCMC surgeons are now looking to share their knowledge by training doctors across the whole of East Africa.
