Establishing Telemedicine in Ucayali Region of Peru

The Ucayali region of Peru is one the poorest regions of the country, and many communities are isolated from the world. The only means of communication is the radio as most of small communities do not have basic specialty medical care. In the town of Atalaya, only basic medical emergencies are addressed. For all other medical needs, patients have to be flown to Pucallpa, some 400 km away. Establishing telemedicine programs that will connect main hospitals in Pucallpa with Atalaya hospital will greatly benefit the region that is scattered into 23 villages along the Ucayali River. Most of these villages lack basic elements of modernization such as electricity and telephone lines.

Drs. Latifi and de Leonni Stanonik introduced the telemedicine concept to the hospitals leadership in Hospital Regional de Ucayali (government hospital) during the meeting with Director of the Hospital, Dr. Angel Gutierrez Rodriguez, and the leadership at the Atalaya hospital, in Atalaya. Both demonstrated great interests on telemedicine services, as an attempt to improve health care services in the region.

During the visit to the Atalaya Hospital, they introduced the same concept of telemedicine and its potential benefits to the president of the Region Dr. Jorge Velasquez Portocarrero, who expressed great enthusiasm in establishing Telemedicine program for the entire Ucayali Region. The President and his newly elected government see telemedicine as a potential method to help health care in the region. This introduction of telemedicine to the President was done at the presence of media during the Amazon Expedition celebration, one day before the start of the Martin Strel’s swimming on the Ucayali River.

Both the leadership of the Hospitals in Atalaya and in Pucallpa, as well as the leadership of new government of the Ucayali region embraced the telemedicine concept and promised full political and moral support. The AVMT leadership will put together a program proposal in collaboration with local hospital leadership that will have two major components: implementation of medical consultations and education/training programs of health care provider. One of the top priorities of this Regional Government is improvement of health care.