Telemedicine for Africa: collaborative action between Italy and Swaziland against HIV infection

Telemedicine is a powerful tool to support remote hospitals to promote health in developing countries. However, Digital Divide is a strong obstacle to the diffusion of this technology. We developed a Telemedicine platform with a minimum need of connectivity and software resource and high usability, to support the Swaziland caregivers in their fight against the AIDS/HIV disease. The platform offers the possibility of realtime professional consulting, learning tools, scientific documentation availability, and data exchange to the physician of the Siteki Hospital in Swaziland, whose number is severely insufficient. The platform is supported by the physicians of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital L. Sacco, Milan, Italy, and has been implemented using the WordPress CMS enhanced with LMS facilities to ensure an easy management by the African caregivers. After the positive training and testing stage, we aim to integrate the platform with the Siteki Hospital information system to facilitate the clinical data exchange.