Markle Telemedicine Clinic in Cambodia

The Markle Foundation Telemedicine clinic in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia, provides a model for the way in which information and communication technologies can be harnessed to improve the quality of health and life in the developing world. It brings the specialized skills of doctors at Harvard Medical School-affiliated teaching hospitals to one of the most isolated and medically-underserved areas of Cambodia and the region.

The clinic is a joint project of the Markle Foundation, American Assistance for Cambodia, Partners Telemedicine, and the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope. A nurse from the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope in Phnom Penh, Cambodia visits the remote Markle clinic once a month to examine and photograph patients and measure their vital statistics. The resulting report is e-mailed to doctors at both the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope and Partners Telemedicine in Boston, USA, who collaborate with doctors at the clinic to make diagnoses and develop courses of treatment. Patients requiring more sophisticated equipment and supplies are transferred, but most are treated on-site. All are encouraged to return for follow up telemedicine check-ups as necessary.

Although the use of telemedicine is expanding both in the developed and developing worlds, it is still in a relatively early phase of adoption. Since its launch in April of 2003, the Markle Telemedicine Clinic has incorporated innovations including an extension of its service area via a mobile Wi-Fi network transported by motorcycles, and the first known application of quality of life research instrument to assess the impact of a telemedicine clinic in a developing country. The clinic has provided valuable lessons and helped to identify areas in which work is needed to maximize the potential of international telemedicine as a tool to reach patients in even the poorest and most remote parts of the world.