Zithulele Hospital is a medical marvel. It provides quality primary care for a community of 130,000 people scattered across part of the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa with just 146 beds and 13 fulltime doctors. Zithulele’s situation illustrates one of the major public health challenges in the world today: there aren’t enough doctors in rural communities. “We work hard to provide both accessibility and quality healthcare, but it’s a major day-to-day challenge,” says Dr. Ben Gaunt, manager of clinical operations at the hospital.
That challenge was also the focus of a six-member team of IBMers who visited the hospital last fall during a three-week engagement in South Africa. Theirs was one of two pilot projects that helped shape a major new corporate social responsibility initiative, IBM Health Corps, which is aimed at addressing global public health problems. The other pilot addressed obesity and shortened lifespans in Calderdale, a community in West Yorkshire, England.
Related Resources
IBM Announces Health Corps to Help Communities Around the World
Address Public Health Challenges
eWeek: Big Blue Launches IBM Health Corps
The post IBM Health Corps: New Ideas for Solving the World’s Health Problems appeared first on Citizen IBM Blog.
