A service model for improving healthcare delivery in rural developing communities

The infrastructure needed in developing countries, especially in rural areas, often makes providing state-of-the-art healthcare cost prohibitive. We describe a highly asynchronous service model for healthcare delivery that is inexpensive, at least compared to the usual implementation of telemedicine, and involves technical service, public health, training and political aspects. The model is incremental, and will provide improved service even though at the initial stages it is not likely to be fully implemented. Our proposed service model provides relatively comprehensive, but not universal, healthcare coverage, and this paper discusses the service model’s economic and technical limitations.