The Virtual Drs save lives in rural Zambia using mobile phones. How? By providing a ‘virtual doctor’ volunteer who is accessible via our mobile phone app to give medical advice to local healthcare workers. This advice allows for rapid treatment on site and often prevents hospital admission.

We know this saves lives. We have so many positive stories to tell.

• Like a 9 year old with shingles affecting her eye, who received up to date advice about anti-viral medication and eye drops to prevent blindness.
• Like the women in premature labour who received steroids in time to help her baby’s lungs develop.
• Like the boy with a long standing bone infection who had been from clinic to clinic getting partially treated until a team at Virtual Doctors understood the severity of the infection and risk to life and managed to organise treatment at a charity orthopaedic hospital in the capital.

Feedback from a healthcare worker this week stated: Thank you for your generosity. The advice saved a life

The app also provides education. Each case has educational  information attached and there is an educational forum including audio podcasts.

Feedback includes: Very educative..i will manage pneumonia well…i was kind of mismanaging…

Like most of Africa Zambia has very few Dr’s with current estimate of only 2 Doctors per 10,000 people (compared with UK of 28). Yet the Virtual Drs service is currently covering a population of approx. 1.6 million people with just 70 mobile phones.

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