Antari breaks down barriers in the Peruvian Amazon by providing specialized medicine

GMV BRINGS ITS ANTARI TELEMEDICINE SYSTEM TO FUNDACIÓN EHAS’s NAPO PROJECT, WHICH AIMS TO PROVIDE PERU´S MOST SCATTERED, FAR-FLUNG INHABITANTS WITH SPECIALIST HEALTHCARE SERVICES 

The irruption of internet in advanced societies has shaken up traditional models and completely redrawn the picture, leaving no one indifferent and almost nothing untouched. Depending on the type of opportunities it offers in each particular sector, however, its advent might have very diverse effects.

Healthcare, in particular, is offering the most fortunate citizens advantages such as the possibility of online medical appointments, checking their electronic medical record or obtaining diagnoses from various specialists from any part of the world. The less favored, those living in far-flung, poorly communicated places with fewer resources, can now for the first time ever, thanks to internet, see the faces and hear the voices of their loved ones thousands of miles away or obtain a medical diagnosis by telemedicine without having to make long journeys.
In rural zones of the Amazon, in particular, a foundation called Fundación EHAS has been working for some years now with cutting-edge ICT to improve healthcare here as well as in developing countries in general. To this project GMV is now collaborating with its telemedicine platform, Antari.

To quote Ignacio Prieto, Director General of Fundación EHAS, “since 2016 our NAPO project has managed to bring a broadband mobile service to 3000 people from six isolated communities of the Peruvian Amazon jungle as well as bringing internet connectivity and telemedicine services to 13 rural health centers”.

A virgin, off-the-beaten-track environment

The pristine isolation of the Department of Loreto (Peru), lying in the catchment area of the River Napo, an Amazon tributary, has protected its nature but also makes life difficult for a far-flung, scattered population. Getting to one of the nearest hospitals in Iquitos, for example, might take up to six hours by boat while Lima lies eight hours away. By that time any illness that local medicine has not been able to cure might be irremediable.

In answer to this problem, Fundación EHAS is working on the NAPO project, which taps into GMV’s inhouse telemedicine systems and, with the help of the Healthcare Network of Napo (dependent on the Regional Healthcare Directorate of Loreto and the Peruvian Health Ministry) gives over 21,000 people access to top-quality, specialist healthcare services.

The project is also supported by the Development Bank of Latin America (Corporacion Andina de Fomento: (CAF) as the main financer, plus the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; the Regional Authority of Madrid (2017 call) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo: AECID) since 2019 (Development Innovation Actions 2018).