EWB-USA NER Conference Start

Dr. Carrie Kovarik spoke about her research with dermatology tele-medicine in Africa. This project allows rural health facilities to quickly diagnose and hopefully treat dermatological issues using mobile devices.

They capture images of the patient's issues and send it to doctors in the larger cities (or back in the US) and the patient no longer needs to wait months to receive a diagnosis. Additionally, Dr. Kovarik and her team are working to create tele-pathology labs in some rural areas. They have recently set up a microscope which live-streams results to a remote location, so a doctor can look at the tissue and make a more accurate diagnosis without the time and expense of sending the sample or a patient to the doctor.

A side benefit is that many of the rural doctors using teledermatology are learning about skin disorders and are able to diagnose common disorders without the help of outside doctors!

It was a good start to the Engineers Without Borders-USA North East Regional Conference!