Doctor On Call
In the Wild Frontier of Mpumalanga, Dr Patrick Rogers puts telemedicine into practice in its most basic and practical form
Rural medicine is frontier medicine, practiced off the potholed track in areas of the country where a doctor, just like a boer, must learn to maak ‘n plan. For Dr Patrick Rogers, a Chief Medical Officer at Tonga Hospital in Mpumalanga, that plan takes its cue from a nifty device that is always close to hand. Not a stethoscope, but an Internet-enabled smartphone. For Dr Rogers, a 2010 Discovery Foundation Fellow, a mobile is more than just a tool for staying in touch at the 160-bed facility, which wasn’t even on the map when he took up residence with his wife, Dr Mampho Mochaoa, in 2008.
Google Tonga today and you’ll be transported to a website that features pictures and videos of the hospital, along with a guide to pinpointing its location on a satellite map. But the real reason Tonga is on the map is the quality of its healthcare, particularly in the perinatal ward where Dr Rogers spends much of his time.
Far from the mainstream of maternity care, Dr Rogers calls on the advice of experts and mentors, as much as he calls on his own knowledge and experience in a crisis. A tiny newborn suffering cardiac arrest due to an unregulated blood transfusion rate; a compressor failure on a CPAP machine; a baby with spina bifada requiring special care. By email or SMS, Dr Rogers seeks answers and solutions, and they come straight to his phone via a growing network of fellow professionals who are only too happy to help. “Experienced mentors are worth a library of textbooks,” says Dr Rogers, who stays alert to opportunities to attend conferences and discuss the latest research with experts in person.
Back in the “wild frontier” of Mpumalanga, Dr Rogers is able to put the grand vision of telemedicine into practice in its most basic and practical form. “Technology is there to link humans,” he says, “but unless the relationship is in place to begin with, you’re not going to be able to use it to its full advantage.” Dr Rogers also uses his phone to consult an online medical encyclopedia, and to stay in touch with news from the world of health and wellness.
Just the other day, he says, he came across news of an innovation that piqued his interest: a stethoscope capable of transmitting audio clips via MMS, when attached to a cell-phone. For now, the phone alone is enough to keep him ticking
By Gus Silber for the Discovery Foundation
