Clinicians in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face limited advanced surgical expertise for complex blast injuries, few continuing education opportunities, a lack of diagnostic modalities such as pathology and advanced imaging, and shortages of specialists for multidisciplinary team working. These are compounded by internet availability limited to a few hours daily, basic smartphones as the only computing devices, electricity available almost only in hospitals or medical points, and requirements for patient privacy. This work presents a prototype low-bandwidth tele-mentoring platform, developed as a mobile application for low-cost hardware, that connects verified specialists with clinicians in developing countries. Specialists are authenticated through a three-step process of GMC number retrieval, official documentation upload and facial recognition, with profiles auto-populated from the GMC register and self-managed on-call availability. The platform supports three types of virtual clinic: on-call emergency consultations in which available specialists are pinged until one accepts, scheduled multidisciplinary team meetings for complex cases, and routine consultations, alongside an asynchronous forum through which LMIC clinicians post anonymised, case-relevant information to request expert opinions where connectivity is minimal. The resulting platform establishes a network of vetted clinical specialists offering on-demand emergency support, collaborative case management tools and a repository of expert advice, with bi-directional instantaneous translation and live video conferencing. It was developed at the "Hack for Gaza" event held by Deen Developers Ltd.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)