Upstream Nigeria Telemedicine Pilot Program

Abstract

Abstract Background: The quest for oil and gas has necessitated personnel movement into remote locations including offshore. Typical challenges for medical emergency response in remote locations are: adverse weather conditions and logistical problems. Employees of ExxonMobil Upstream Affiliates in Nigeria stepped into the future of medicine with the deployment of innovative telemedicine technology by the Medicine and Occupational Health (MOH) Department in Nigeria. This Upstream Nigeria Telemedicine Pilot Program became a reality in March 2010 with commencement of teleconsultations by the specialists across our locations. Thus, they became the first ExxonMobil affiliate to successfully deploy such a Pilot Program. Objective: This innovation is aimed at ensuring specialist on-line interactions with patients in remote locations such as off shore and reducing patient transfer across our locations. Methods: The telemedicine equipment in this pilot includes Physician Small Studios (PSS) at the Mobil House and MHE Clinics; a Telemedicine cart (T-cart) at the Qua Iboe Terminal (QIT) clinic and a B3 Zero suitcase on a medic manned offshore location: OSO complex. An on-line log of teleconsultations is kept on a daily basis while monthly total of the records is also documented. Over one hundred and sixty-one (161) personnel across Eket, Lagos, QIT and OSO complex have had teleconsultations with physical evaluations done by means of the diagnostic scopes system. A client satisfaction survey was deployed in August 2010 to increase the metrics. Conclusion: Some of the health needs addressed during such sessions include: fever, upper respiratory infections (URUI), pharyngitis, acute abdomen, gastroenteritis with dehydration, skin lesions, cellulitis, hypertension, and review of blood work. In most cases, personnel returned to work although some of the cases were placed on observation and some referrals to designated hospitals were made.