The management of complex cardiovascular disease, specialist prenatal ultrasounds, and the diagnosis of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis can now be carried out even in the most remote parts of the Americas thanks to the launch of the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) telehealth kits. The kits, which form part of the Organization’s All in One Telehealth Package, provide countries with everything they need to set up telehealth services in rural and hard-to-reach communities throughout the Region at just one-fifth of the cost of purchasing the equipment separately.

In the Americas, around 35% of the population lack access to the health services they need, primarily due to organizational, financial and geographic barriers. For Dr. Sebastian Garcia Saiso, Director of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health at PAHO, “the telehealth kits are a crucial step forward in democratizing comprehensive primary healthcare services and bringing them to the populations that need them the most - from the jungles of the Amazon rainforest to the peaks of the Andes, to the small island states of the Caribbean.”

Available through PAHO’s Regional Revolving Funds, a pooled procurement mechanism that enable countries of the Americas to access quality vaccines, essential medicines, supplies and health technologies at affordable prices, the kits contain everything needed to set up telehealth services in the field. This includes equipment such as a blood pressure monitor, a glucometer, a thermometer, an electrocardiogram, a heart rate monitor, and an oxygen saturation machine, all of which can be connected online and utilized digitally.