Cancer diagnosis and telemedicine: a case study from Cambodia

Cambodia is one of the least developed countries in the world, and presents major challenges to the provision of effective healthcare. Partners Telemedicine, a non-profit organization based in Boston, MA, is leading a pilot project to assess whether accurate diagnosis and treatment can be provided by email to patients in remote locales in the developing world. This project, in rural Cambodia, has had a beneficial impact on the public health of the communities served. There has been a reduced demand for acute care services, with patients seeking treatment earlier and adhering better to their prescribed treatment regimens for chronic diseases, and the project illustrates the potential for simple communications technology to improve care, even to some of the most impoverished communities. However, infrastructure must be improved in Cambodia to enable patients, in particular cancer patients, to receive acute care that can only be provided in distant Phnom Penh.