Paediatric radiology requires dedicated equipment, specific precautions related to ionising radiation, and specialist knowledge. Developing countries face difficulties in providing adequate imaging services for children. In many African countries, children represent an increasing proportion of the population, and additional challenges follow from extreme living conditions, poverty, lack of parental care, and exposure to tuberculosis, HIV, pneumonia, diarrhoea and violent trauma. Imaging plays a critical role in the treatment of these children, but is expensive and difficult to provide. The World Health Organisation initiatives, of which the World Health Imaging System for Radiography (WHIS-RAD) unit is one result, needs to expand into other areas such as the provision of maintenance servicing. New initiatives by groups such as Rotary and the World Health Imaging Alliance to install WHIS-RAD units in developing countries and provide digital solutions, need support. Paediatric radiologists are needed to offer their services for reporting, consultation and quality assurance for free by way of teleradiology. Societies for paediatric radiology are needed to focus on providing a volunteer teleradiology reporting group, information on child safety for basic imaging, guidelines for investigations specific to the disease spectrum, and solutions for optimising imaging in children.

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Paediatric radiology seen from Africa. Part I: providing diagnostic imaging to a young population

This article proposes an application-layer multiplexing scheme for teleoperation systems with multimodal feedback (video, audio, and haptics). The available transmission resources are carefully allocated to avoid delay-jitter for the haptic signal potentially caused by the size and arrival time of the video and audio data. The multiplexing scheme gives high priority to the haptic signal and applies a preemptive-resume scheduling strategy to stream the audio and video data. The proposed approach estimates the available transmission rate in real time and adapts the video bitrate, data throughput, and force buffer size accordingly. Furthermore, the proposed scheme detects sudden transmission rate drops and applies congestion control to avoid abrupt delay increases and converge promptly to the altered transmission rate. The performance of the proposed scheme is measured objectively in terms of end-to-end signal latencies, packet rates, and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) for visual quality. Moreover, peak-delay and convergence time measurements are carried out to investigate the performance of the congestion control mode of the system.

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A Multiplexing Scheme for Multimodal Teleoperation

The infusion of information communication technology (ICT) into health services is emerging as an active area of research. It has several advantages but perhaps the most important one is providing medical benefits to one and all irrespective of geographic boundaries in a cost effective manner, providing global expertise and holistic services, in a time bound manner. This paper provides a systematic review of technological growth in eHealth services. The present study reviews and analyzes the role of four important technologies, namely, satellite, internet, mobile, and cloud for providing health services.

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The Technological Growth in eHealth Services.

Mortality and morbidity from traumatic injury are twofold higher in rural compared to urban areas. Furthermore, the greater the distance a patient resides from an organized trauma system, the greater the likelihood of an adverse outcome. Delay in timely diagnosis and treatment contributes to this penalty, regardless of whether the inherent barriers are geographic, cultural, or socioeconomic. Since ultrasound is noninvasive, cost-effective, and portable, it is becoming increasingly useful for remote/underresourced (R/UR) settings to avoid lengthy patient travel to relatively inaccessible medical centers. Ultrasonography is a user-dependent, technical skill, and many, if not most, front-line care providers will not have this advanced training. This is particularly true if care is being provided by out-of-hospital, “nontraditional” providers. The human exploration of space has forced the utilization of information technology (IT) to allow remote experts to guide distant untrained care providers in point-of-care ultrasound to diagnose and manage both acute and chronic illness or injuries. This paradigm potentially brings advanced diagnostic imaging to any medical interaction in a setting with internet connectivity. This paper summarizes the current literature surrounding the development of teleultrasound as a transformational technology and its application to underresourced settings.

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Potential Use of Remote Telesonography as a Transformational Technology in Underresourced and/or Remote Settings

Background: Space technology has an impact on many domains of activity on earth, including in the field of global health. With the recent adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals that highlight the need for strengthening partnerships in different domains, it is useful to better characterize the relationship between space technology and global health. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the applications of space technologies to global health, the key stakeholders in the field, as well as gaps and challenges. Methods: We used a scoping review methodology, including a literature review and the involvement of stakeholders, via a brief self-administered, open-response questionnaire. A distinct search on several search engines was conducted for each of the four key technological domains that were previously identified by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs’ Expert Group on Space and Global Health (Domain A: remote sensing; Domain B: global navigation satellite systems; Domain C: satellite communication; and Domain D: human space flight). Themes in which space technologies are of benefit to global health were extracted. Key stakeholders, as well as gaps, challenges, and perspectives were identified. Results: A total of 222 sources were included for Domain A, 82 sources for Domain B, 144 sources for Domain C, and 31 sources for Domain D. A total of 3 questionnaires out of 16 sent were answered. Global navigation satellite systems and geographic information systems are used for the study and forecasting of communicable and noncommunicable diseases; satellite communication and global navigation satellite systems for disaster response; satellite communication for telemedicine and tele-education; and global navigation satellite systems for autonomy improvement, access to health care, as well as for safe and efficient transportation. Various health research and technologies developed for inhabited space flights have been adapted for terrestrial use. Conclusions: Although numerous examples of space technology applications to global health exist, improved awareness, training, and collaboration of the research community is needed.

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Applications of Space Technologies to Global Health: Scoping Review.

Ultrasound has great potential as an imaging technology in resource-limited environments. We present a novel tele-ultrasound approach designed to realize that potential by connecting a remote technician to a radiologist. Our preliminary system, based on open-source software and commercial off-the-shelf hardware, uses custom software and a satellite Internet connection to create this link. We also present the results of testing this system in both laboratory and real-world environments.

J. Pyke

Papers

A Tele-ultrasound System for Real-time Medical Imaging in Resource-limited Settings