FRANK ROCCO
Marketing Director
News & Resources
Free Online Medical Care for Underserved Areas
Through the Global Pandemic and Beyond
Healthcare is
a human right.
Help patients with the greatest need, but most limited access to care.
Global Telehealth Network (GTN) is a nonprofit organization that connects an international network of volunteer physicians and psychologists with doctors, nurses and other health workersin medically underserved areas when they encounter patients with difficult problems.
Health workers located in remote areas in the U.S. or throughout the world can obtain free, realtime video consults with GTN’s
volunteers professionals – without anyone having to travel!
Global Telehealth Network Offers Medical, Surgical and Mental Health Consults for Health Workers in:
• Hospitals & clinics in
under-resourced countries
• Refugee camps
• Conflict zones
• Centers for victims of
human trafficking
• Free clinics in the U.S.
• Disaster areas
How GTN works
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When health workers on the ground need help with patients, they enter their findings into the electronic health record, log in to GTN’s website, upload their consultation requests and indicate the degree of urgency.
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GTN is developing a software algorithm that will evaluate data points regarding the patient and health worker and match them with the most appropriate physician volunteer who can be available at the required time.
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Through use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the algorithm will continually improve its ability to provide optimal matches.
GTN solutions for global healthcare challenges:
Initial pilot projects
Tanzania
Doctors helping doctors
Challenge: Eleven dedicated Tanzanian primary care physicians work at a small, rural hospital operated by the nonprofit Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME).
Physician volunteers – including some specialists – visit FAME Medical and provide valuable assistance, but only a few specialists are there at any time.
GTN Solution: GTN’s volunteer physicians can respond to requests for online consultations in a broad spectrum of specialties to fill gaps in available services. More …
![FAME - IMG_2612[1].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d5cb4d_836065ecd82047f9836d3f0ee341f25f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_321,h_241,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/FAME%20-%20IMG_2612%5B1%5D.jpg)
Uganda
Doctors helping nurses
Challenge: A boarding school in Kyangwali, Uganda is located adjacent to a camp for 80,000 Congolese refugees who have fled from atrocities in the DRC. A single nurse is responsible for the care of over 500 students and 18 staff, with no physician backup.
GTN Solution: Using a laptop computer donated by the Rotary Club of Los Altos, California, USA, the nurse can access free consults on-demand, and connect online with GTN physician volunteers – either with primary care physicians or with specialists if needed.
Upcoming projects
California
Challenge: Doctors who volunteer in free medical clinics often find it difficult to arrange specialty consultations for patients who need them. Sometimes doctors can’t get to the clinic because they have emergencies or get stuck in traffic, and patients are sent home without being seen.
GTN Solution: If patients have complex conditions and need extra help, GTN’s volunteer specialists can provide online consultations. If there’s a shortage of doctors in the clinic, nurses can facilitate telehealth visits with volunteer physicians who don’t need to travel.
Liberia
Challenge: With only 50 physicians for 4 million people, the nurses who staff most clinics – as well as mental health workers in both rural and urban areas – have little or no physician backup.
GTN Solution: Through the network, nurses can get online help from volunteer primary care physicians, and when patients with have more complex problems, they can be seen by the appropriate specialists. Mental health workers can connect with volunteer psychiatrists and psychologists when the correct diagnosis or treatment plan is in doubt.
Join our global team of dedicated doctors.
GTN’s volunteer physicians and psychologists provide free online help for people who have limited access to healthcare.
In addition to our work in the U.S., GTN can offer services to areas of the world where the majority of people currently live their lives without ever seeing a doctor.”
– Jack Higgins, MD
President & Chief Medical Officer
Global Telehealth Network
Help us build and maintain the network.
To fully develop the Network, we need funding from donors like you who want to be in on the ground floor of this historic effort to reduce health disparities.
