One Computer Per Village - telemedicine

Ram Dhurjaty, posting in the OLPC News blog, raises the idea of the telemedicine application of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) "XO" laptop computer, which is currently in pre-production trials. I am inviting the readers of that post to use this space for the dvelopment of more discussions on this possibility, with or without the OLPC machine.

In 2005, when I raised my first public criticism of the OLPC program I had been pursuing the idea of "one telecentre per village", which I now modify to "one computer per village", or OCPV. I expanded further on the concept with a post that laid out the telecentre concept in more detail.

While my criticisms have had minimal impact on the OLPC project (so far as I can see, which is not very far), their active publicity function plus their great progress on designing hardware and software with the level of reliability and user-accessibility necessary for use in developing countries has captured the attention of a large number of computer-capable people around the world. One would be a fool not to make use of this interest.

My experience includes structuring the information-exchange forum that was instrumental in establishing the personal computer industry in Silicon Valley, and I see the need for such a forum in establishing a new industry (one which I call "Fair Trade Technology"). I would hope that this site could provide one of many manifestations of such a forum.

I suggest that people use the category "OCPV" to search for and categorize entries.

Comments

[Computer Shop Finder]

May I ask what would be the impact or the effect of having one laptop per village? As I assume these days, a lot people own their own computers.

[Robert Kozma]

Lee,

I very much like your notion of one laptop per village. It corresponds to the work that I have been doing with the education committee of a rural village in western Kenya. See http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/business/olpc_xo_economic_development.html

[Ram Dhurjaty]

There is a company in India that enables low cost diagnostics over the Internet by enabling telemedicine.

The village based Kiosks are profitable to the operator and allow access to medical diagnostics in remote areas

http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_n/neurosynaptic_communications/20040609_diagnostic_kit.html

The OLPC could be used to adopt this model in order to enable Telemedicine. This certainly fits under the OKPV or one kiosk per village category.

[Ram Dhurjaty]

The readers may be interested in the following URL which
is a "a day in the life of a village Kiosk operator" :

http://www.nri-home-coming.com/LC/nLogueKioskArticle.html

[Ram Dhurjaty]

Lee,

I have had a passion for getting affordable medical devices to the bottom of the pyramid.

One of the problems in dissemination medical devices that are not appropriate (need air conditioning and a dust free environment) is that they will not survive in rugged environments. Later this year I will be testing a hand cranked defibrillator(uses a pull rope generator) in rugged areas of Brazil. The technology that is being used will be very rugged and designed to survive harsh environments and will be relatively inexpensive. I have found the XO to be a great platform for other devices because it can be powered by human inputs.Other than imaging systems, most of the cost in a medical device is in the processing platform. Some of the material such as blood pressure cuffs may be available locally, in a big city.

This platform could also allow a local Physician or assistant to confer with other physicians in a city regarding the severity of a person's condition.