Charity telemedicine initiative expands into India, the Philippines

An expansion of a telemedicine program run by the U.K.-based Swinfen Charitable Trust will help bring care to rural communities in India and the Philippines. The program will take advantage of technologies from Verizon, which will enable deployment on mobile devices. It currently connects clinicians at 260 hospitals in 68 developing countries with more than 550 medical specialists worldwide, which include 68 from the University of Virginia Health System.

"A very large number of hospitals, clinics, doctors and medical workers in the developing world have no access to medical advice from specialists such as oncologists, neurologists or pediatric cardiologists," Swinfen founder Roger Swinfen said in a statement. "Our telemedicine program is an invaluable tool for healthcare workers in the developing world who may not otherwise have anyone to consult about their patients' specific cases." Announcement