THENI, India, June 7 (UPI) -- Technology based on WiFi wireless networks allows eye specialists at a hospital in India to screen patients in remote clinics via a video conference.
The more than one-year pilot project has proved so successful that this week it is scheduled to be announced that the program will be expanded to include five hospitals linked to 50 clinics and serve half a million patients each year, according to Eric Brewer, a University of California Berkeley director of the Intel Research Berkeley lab who initiated efforts to develop the technology.
"Historically, most projects have been either too expensive or too technologically complex to be used in poor, rural areas," said Brewer. "What we've done here is develop a simple, inexpensive software and hardware system that can provide villages with a high-bandwidth connection to computer networks in cities as far as 50 miles away."
The clinics are run by a nurse trained in eye care. Patients first see the nurse, then spend about five minutes consulting with a hospital doctor via a Web camera. If the doctor determines an examination or an operation is necessary, the patient is given a hospital appointment.
