The World Telehealth Initiative recently launched as a nonprofit humanitarian group.
Here are five things to know about the newly-formed organization:
1. The World Telehealth Initiative aims to expand access to healthcare services and medical training across the globe by bringing telehealth equipment and services to underserved regions.
2. One of the World Telehealth Initiative's initial partners is InTouch Health, a telehealth services company. InTouch Health will support access to remote specialists across the globe by donating virtual care devices and enabling physicians who use its platform to volunteer with the World Telehealth Initiative.
3. Another partner in the initiative is charitable medicines provider Direct Relief, an organization that has provided healthcare resources for relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina, the West Africa Ebola outbreak and Hurricane Harvey.
4. The World Telehealth Initiative already launched a telehealth program at a fistula care center in Malawi. The program connects practitioners at the fistula care center with clinicians at healthcare facilities in the U.S. to remotely collaborate on diagnoses, procedures and care plans.
5. The World Telehealth Initiative also launched programs to bring supplies, clinicians and technology to communities in Bangladesh and Haiti.
"Rather than providing episodic support relying on traditional modes of transportation, WTI will enable sustained support by leveraging telehealth to bring clinical expertise to the regions it assists," Yulun Wang, PhD, founder, chairman and chief innovation officer of InTouch Health and chairman of the World Telehealth Initiative, said in the nonprofit's July 10 statement.