High-speed internet delivers telemedicine to Dadaab refugee camp Dadaab in northern Kenya was once the world’s largest refugee camp, serving as a home to quarter of a million refugees across five neighbouring camps in a remote semi-arid area with scant infrastructure. Providing medical services to Dadaab’s refugees has been costly and inhibited by the absence of specialists. Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, which is headquartered 475km away in Nairobi, overcame the challenges of providing specialised prenatal healthcare for mothers and children by delivering medical consultancy over Liquid Intelligent Technologies’s high-speed internet. The telemedicine service is cost-effective, saving patients and doctors travel costs and time.
Challenge
- Establish a point of connection at Dadaab, Northern Kenya.
- Deliver uninterrupted 2Mbps internet connection with a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%.
- Install a connection that supports telemedicine services.
Solution
- Deployed a 2Mbps MPLS fibre link to the site at Dadaab camp.
- Deployed a managed 15Mbps fibre link at headquarters in Muthaiga, Nairobi.
Result
- The hospital has successfully treated 56 patients requiring specialist doctors, without requiring them to travel to Nairobi.
- Through its services and innovative use of the internet to deliver universal healthcare, the hospital won the CIO 2017 award in recognition of excellent enterprise information technology adoption.
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies additionally delivered internet for use by other institutions and individuals near and around Dadaab refugee camp, enabling additional communication, economic and social benefits to the region.
Testimonial:
“Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital is leveraging the power of fast internet to launch telemedicine services to provide specialised neonatal care, which is one of the steps toward Universal Health Care for all, as envisioned in Kenyan government’s big 4 agenda,” said Peter Kanda, Head of Information Services, Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital.
