Intel Corp yesterday unveiled a plan to improve healthcare in
105 clinics and hospitals in rural parts of Zhanjiang over the next
two years.
Working with the Ministry of Health, the municipal government of
Zhanjiang and several domestic technology companies, Intel will
help provide computers, telemedicine equipment and Internet access
to the city's rural hospitals and clinics.
The new technology is designed to make the hospitals and clinics
accessible to real-time video and help staff create digital health
records.
The plan is a key part of the firm's contribution to China's
"New Countryside Initiative," under which it will help promote IT
in rural areas.
"How to better inform, educate and care for people living in
rural areas is one of the major challenges faced by any
government," said Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, who is currently
visiting China, yesterday. "Intel is working with China to overcome
the challenge."
He said Intel will also support the provincial government of Guangdong in establishing 300 rural community
computing service centers, which will be equipped with computers
with reliable, high-speed Internet connections by the end of this
year.
The centers are designed to enable rural people to access vast
medical, educational and commercial information resources.
Intel plans to spend US$30 million on the initiative, not only
setting up community computing service centers, but also developing
computers tailor-made for rural areas and training rural people in
how to use them.
"No one company, no one government, can do this work alone. We
are here to demonstrate what can be done with the application of IT
in rural areas," said Barrett. "We will be able to take the method
and duplicate it anywhere in China as well as globally." He said
Intel will carry out the initiative in 1,000 villages in five
provinces over the next three years.
Praising Intel's efforts, Zhanjiang Mayor Chen Yaoguang, said
the program to digitalize rural areas in Zhanjiang will create
economic opportunities for rural people, as well as improving their
healthcare and living standards. "They will have many more
opportunities for business, for education and for the future," the
mayor said.
"The application of IT in the healthcare system is very
beneficial for the rural population," Zhang Jimei, a doctor with a
local hospital in Zhanjiang said.
"Critically ill patients will be able to be diagnosed by medical
specialists hundreds of kilometers away and ambulances will upload
vital medical histories as they rush patients to urban hospitals,"
said the doctor.
Zhanjiang farmer Huang Huaping said computers are already
changing the way he lives and supports his family. Thanks to
computers and Internet access, the farmer said, he expects his crop
sales to rise by 50 percent this year, as his income climbs 30
percent.
(China Daily October 31, 2006)