HYEBRIDGE TELEHEALTH ARMENIAN TELEDEMEDICINE PROGRAM

HyeBridge Telehealth Armenian telemedicine program provides a better quality of life for all Armenians through faster, more effective healthcare.

The program is designed to deliver improved healthcare to underserved rural Armenian communities. This Armenian telemedicine program uses Internet-based videoconferencing technologies and a dedicated website to deliver continuous medical education and diagnostic and treatment services to local healthcare providers and patients.

AREAS SERVED

The program initially targets five rural villages in the Tavush region with the telemedicine program. Once established, Armenia Fund USA will then expand the scope of the program to include 159 villages in five additional regions.

The Tavush marz, including the villages of Aygedzor, Voskevan, Sevkar, Aygehovit , is 64 percent rural with a population of nearly 122,000 people spread across more than 40 communities. As of 2004, the Tavush marz was home to 228 doctors and 604 nurses, a lower average than Armenia as a whole.

PROGRAM FEATURES

HyeBridge Telehealth features a specially-designed education website, and an Internet-based videoconferencing network linking seven Tavush hospitals and health centers with Yerevan State Medical University after Heratsi.

The program enables local healthcare providers to:

• Access a full database of education modules, created by medical faculty at Yerevan State Medical University of Heratshi, and other critical learning resources, for continuing medical education purposes;
• Consult the latest medical journals and articles via a subscription to Ovid Technologies, a leading provider of electronic medical, scientific, and academic research information solutions that includes hundreds of databases, more than thousand journals and books from dozens of publishers;
• Conduct local diagnostic and educational, “grand round” of telemedicine sessions with doctors in Armenia and/or a network of U.S.-based physicians.

Armenia Fund USA is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization under U.S. law.
All contributions are tax deductible.

PROGRAM PARTNERS

Armenia Fund USA and Yerevan State Medical University are partnering with several key organizations. Polycom, Inc, Karabakh Telecom, VivaCell, American Armenian Health Professionals Organization are working together to provide the necessary technologies, infrastructure, and knowledge to power HyeBridge Telehealth.