For the elderly, isolated, disabled or living in a medial desert, it is not always easy to have access to care. What if instead of going to the hospital, the hospital came to you? This is the good idea developed by the Lannemezan Hospital Center and the European Center for Information Technologies in Rural Areas (CETIR). They designed a truck offering a local Medical Imaging service: x-ray, mammography, ultrasound, retinology, dermatoscopy, cardiology equipment … Everything is there!
Remote ultrasounds
The vehicle, inaugurated in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées) Wednesday, July 5, was baptized TIMM (Mobile medical tele-imaging) and measures 10 meters long and three meters wide. Connected by satellite, it operates in complete autonomy thanks to solar panels and lithium batteries. On the medical side, TIMM is linked to cameras, allowing it to be in contact with doctors from the Lannemezan hospital and throughout France. Better yet: thanks to a probe, these specialists can perform ultrasound scans remotely!
This ambitious truck, which cost 2.4 million euros, will be sold for 900,000 euros on the market, since it is only a prototype. For the time being, TIMM is reserved for the elderly in EHPADs located in the Hautes-Pyrénées and in the south of the Haute-Garonne, but it could be used, in the future, to combat medical desertification.
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