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   Dr Ainura Sadvokasova’s patients at the Central Regional Hospital in the Kazakhstan town of Aralsk live in an environmental disaster zone in one of the most sparely populated regions in the world.In the early 1960s, Aralsk was a busy fishing and rail head port. Incredibly, it now lies 100 kilometres from the northern shore of the shrinking Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world and the centre of an important fishing industry. Heavy water diversion for crop irrigation during the Soviet era caused the waters of the Aral Sea to dry up with devastating results for the region’s environment, economy and human health. Airborne salt and dust from the exposed former seabed has destroyed natural vegetation and crops and is linked to rising respiratory illnesses and may cause throat and esophageal cancer. Scientists fear the Aral Sea could vanish completely by 2015 if the drying continues. Aralsk hospital lacks the resources and expertise to deal with the deteriorating medical situation, but a project coordinated by the United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) allows doctors like Dr. Sadvokasova to get a second opinion from medical specialists. A newly developed portable ultrasound device transmits and receives three-dimensional images to hospitals anywhere around the globe. This means Dr. Sadvokasova can send images of her patients via satellite link-up to the Diagnostic Centre in Almaty, Kazanstan's largest city. "Formerly when we had doubts during diagnosis, we would advise patients to go to Almaty for consultation, but many of them would not go for lack of money. Now we can immediately consult Almaty’s more experienced doctors. If in Almaty they have any doubts, then they send the image to Coimbra, Portuga," she says. The equipment is being tested by physicians in other countries, including Uganda, the Canary Islands (Spain) and the Azores Islands of Portugal, under a project known as TeleInViVo, which is funded by the European Community. (InViVo is a software tool for viewing 3D data). UNESCO is coordinating the project in the non-European countries. The project makes tele-diagnosis and tele-consultation a reality even in the most extreme conditions and promotes international medical collaboration and sharing of specialist information and expertise. In Kazakhstan, telemedicine is an increasingly high priority. After the first week of operation, Dr. Sadvokasova was impressed with the TeleInViVo capabilities, which have allowed her to take part in preliminary consultations and receive recommendations from a specialist in Almaty. The ability of specialist doctors to link up to and support remote doctors in consultation and diagnosis could help to create a major international shift, in both the practices and principles of health care. FIND OUT MORE about how UN agencies such as UNESCO and the World Health Organization (WHO) work to improve medical care in remote and developing countries by going to the links next to Dr. Sadvokasova. ADDITIONAL HEALTH STORIES: Luis could be the last Kuheli starts a clinic | Genet gets treatment Photo credit: Andrey Nakatkov/Prestige Productions Limited |
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