As the Zika virus continues to spread through Brazil, one physician is using virtual visits to meet the increased demand for healthcare services, especially in more rural parts of the country, reports NPR.
Sandra Mattos is a pediatric cardiologist who established the Heart Network, which includes 22 regional hospitals and more than 100 physicians that use telemedicine to bolster their care services.
Heart Network uses what Dr. Mattos calls echo taxis, cars that go into villages to deliver specialized equipment to remote healthcare facilities. Local staff are trained to use the equipment, and physicians in the telemedicine network supervise.
While Heart Network was established as a cardiology specialty program, Dr. Mattos altered it when the Zika virus spread, sending out equipment to examine babies' brains rather than their hearts, according to the report.
This initiative helps families in rural areas receive care they otherwise likely did not have access to.
"It's a way forward," Erin Staples with the Centers for Disease Control told NPR. "We saw children in places where it took our teams…over a day to get to. And just imagining, if they had to come here, they might not have the means or the time. So having a system setup to help spread the knowledge and expertise is important."
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