{"id":17144,"date":"2016-11-18T01:30:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T06:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/removing-the-borders-in-doctors-without-borders-telemedicine-and-msf\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T17:51:15","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:51:15","slug":"telemedicine-removing-the-borders-in-doctors-without-borders","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/telemedicine-removing-the-borders-in-doctors-without-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Telemedicine: Removing the \u201cBorders\u201d in Doctors Without Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cSomalia has been at war for two decades. Since [ex-patriate staff] were subject to kidnapping and direct risk by fundamentalist groups and militias,\u2026 the only approach we could follow was remote control strategies.\u201d<\/em> \u2013Latifa Ayada, MSF Brussels<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Costs of MSF\u2019s Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doctors Without Borders or M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF) is an international NGO dedicated to providing health services to war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Since its founding in 1971, the organization has been a bulwark of humanitarianism, often at the critique of pragmatists.<\/p>\n

Frequently working in controversial and politically charged regions, MSF has paid great costs to stay true to its \"msf3\"<\/a>mission.<\/p>\n

Financially, MSF is 92% dependent on private donors supporting an annual budget of $1.4 billion1<\/sup>. The organization often denies funds in conflict with its mission, refusing, for example, $63 million from the European Union in response to \u201cshameful deterrence policies\u201d blocking refugees from Europe in June 20162<\/sup>. MSF is also very careful with donations it receives. In October 2016, MSF refused a million free pneumococcal children\u2019s vaccines from Pfizer3<\/sup>, arguing that the high cost of the vaccine had been a larger contributor to the 1.4 million annual child deaths from pneumonia than the value of the free vaccines. As MSF Executive Director Jason Cone put it, donations are \u201coften used as a way to make others \u2018pay up.\u2019 By giving [their products] away for free, pharmaceutical corporations can use this as justification for why prices remain high for others, including other humanitarian organizations and developing countries that also can\u2019t afford [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

MSF’s mission of servicing war-torn regions also comes with high human costs. In October 2015, the NGO’s Afghan hospital serving those caught in the crosshairs of Taliban fighting was erroneously bombed by US airstrikes, destroying the hospital and leaving 42 dead4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Telemedicine as an Intervention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Telemedicine\u2014the use of telecommunication and information technology (IT) to provide clinical health care from a distance\u2014 has been a tremendous recent asset in overcoming MSF\u2019s political, economic and humanitarian challenges. Advances in web connectivity and data sharing have driven three modalities of telemedicine used by MSF: store and forward (SAF), remote monitoring (RM) and live interactive (LI) systems5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n