Providing Healthcare to the World’s Most Vulnerable Communities

Esperanza was 19 years old and living in Malawi when she faced a serious health crisis. While giving birth to her first child, she suffered an obstetric fistula, one of the most devastating childbirth injuries that requires intricate, advanced surgery to correct. 

In the small southeastern country in Africa, many women in Malawi do not have access to the necessary care. They typically have few options, and like Esperanza, often become ostracized from society due to the incontinence and smell, and are forced to live out their lives, in pain, hidden away. According to the World Health Organization, more than two million women in Africa have suffered from obstetric fistulas.

Fortunately, Esperanza had two surgeries performed by a local surgeon who built her skills through the World Telehealth Initiative surgical mentorship program in Malawi. Through the program at Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, novice surgeons are mentored by surgical experts from Baylor College of Medicine. The local surgeon is now able to perform almost all fistula repair surgeries independently and allow these women reentry into society. It is World Telehealth Initiative’s mission to provide sustained, quality healthcare to the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Telehealth technology enables World Telehealth Initiative’s volunteer medical specialists to deliver healthcare expertise to anywhere in the world that has internet. World Telehealth Initiative uses a global cloud-based network and telehealth devices donated by Teladoc Health, the world’s leading virtual care company. The devices are used to teach and mentor local providers diagnostic and surgical skills, which embed these skills into their communities for years to come.

The World Health Organization reports that 50 percent of the world’s population does not have access to essential healthcare services. World Telehealth Initiative is the only humanitarian organization that utilizes telehealth to provide peer-to-peer training, surgical mentoring, clinical consults, and emergent high-acuity care to serve patients and strengthen health systems in underserved communities worldwide.

According to Co-founder and Executive Director Sharon Allen, access to healthcare should not be determined by where you were born. She adds that World Telehealth Initiative is working to transform global healthcare by providing quality medical expertise where and when it is needed.

As for Esperanza, she made a full recovery, thanks to her local doctor and World Telehealth Initiative. She became an ambassador for World Telehealth Initiative and, with a phone and bicycle, has been traveling to nearby towns letting other locals know about the program.