Introduction of Telemedicine in Leper Colony in San Pablo, Peru

The AVMT continues to introduce telemedicine along the Amazon River during the swim expedition, this time in San Pablo village, Mission House for Lepers San Jose in Loreto Region, Peru, one of last remaining leper colonies in the world. During this short visit to this region Dr. de Leonni Stanonik met with political and medical leadership of Loreto Region, including the President of the Loreto Region, Mr. Juan Basquez, the Director General of the General Hospital in Iquitos, Dr. Lic. Wilma S. Casanova Rojas, and Dr. Eduardo Miguel Salinas Morales, the director of San Pablo village, Mission House for Lepers San Jose, and introduced function and potentials of Telemedicine and what it could do for their hospitals. They were all open to the idea and invited the team to come back to evaluate and assess six smaller rural hospitals around Iquitos, in order to create a combined and collaborative telemedicine and educational program.

The leadership of medical health system in the Loreto region as well as the political leadership, including the President of the region expressed publicly and privately interests in examining the possibility of creating a telemedicine program for their region.

Although the meetings are usually very short and brief, during the ongoing Amazon Swim Expedition, initial introduction of telemedicine program has been accepted and will open the doors to thoroughly examine the possibility of introducing telemedicine in this region as well. This will be of great importance for the region, as well as for the partners whom would greatly benefit from the educational standpoint and knowledge sharing and exchange.