Development of e-Health Kiosks and telemedicine system for disaster area: experience in Aceh

Summary form only given. This paper describes our preliminary efforts in the development of low cost movable/mobile community telemedicine system for disaster area, especially in Aceh, Indonesia. The system has been developed to support government's efforts, in providing healthcare services urgently required in emergency and disaster situations. It is also expected that the system can be implemented in both urban and rural areas, at a relatively short time, thus primary healthcare services for the community in need could be fulfilled. Basically, the movable/mobile telemedicine system consists of at least: one or some fixed central community healthcare units, one or a number of movable/mobile healthcare units (e-Health Kiosks - each with its appropriate power supply units), dedicated PC server(s), existing telecommunication infrastructure with various facilities, the Internet access, and the appropriate transport vehicle(s). Five e-Health Kiosk prototypes and a dedicated server for the telemedicine system have been developed. Encouraging experimental results conducted in our laboratory and some locations in Bandung, have been achieved. Further efforts to select appropriate satellite phone with Internet access, to obtain suitable transport vehicle and to install the system in Aceh, are currently in progress. Meanwhile, further collaborations are also underway to integrate our system with another telemedicine system concentrated in distance education & tele-consultation and the development of Internet backbone for Aceh, conducted by two different groups at our institute (ITB).