JERUSALEM, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Israel's largest hospital has launched a training program for Palestinian healthcare professionals, enabling them to provide advanced maternal telemedicine to pregnant women living in remote areas in the West Bank.
The all-female Palestinian team will engage in hands-on training at Sheba Medical Center in central Israel, including remote fetal monitoring, remote fetal ultrasound, patient communication, and digital urinalysis.
The goal of this program is to help pregnant Palestinian women living in wide rural areas surrounding Hebron city in the southern West Bank to receive remote health services such as the prevention and detection of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.
Ronit Zimmer, executive director of Project Rozana, a collaborator of the project, explained to Xinhua that it is not easy for people in those rural areas to go to the hospitals in Hebron, which is located at least 20 kilometers away, in the absence of road infrastructure and public transportation.
In addition, some women may find it difficult to leave their homes because they have to take care of their children, she added.
"With telemedicine, we can get anywhere, even to the most remote villages. It significantly improves pregnancy monitoring while lowering costs," Avi Tsur, director of both Sheba's Women's Health Innovation Center and OB-GYN Beyond department, told Xinhua.
To monitor and treat patients, the Palestinian staff, excluding the gynecologists, will go to public meeting places in the rural areas, where the patients will be treated and tests remotely examined by the doctors using Sheba's technologies.
Raghad, the Palestinian team's coordinator and dentist, said the training workshop at Sheba was "a great experience."
"We met friendly people, really enjoyed the lectures, and got a lot of information on different subjects. It will help us treat women from low socioeconomic villages with poor health status."
Tsur said that "the members of the Palestinian medical staff liked coming to Israel and working with us. Relationships have been established here beyond professional work."
After the training days at Sheba, the hospital's support will continue, with online sessions about twice a month.
"The fact that important hospitals on both sides work together will surely have a positive effect on the relationship between the two peoples," Zimmer noted.
"The program is based on humanity, we know that the sense of life is to help others and do good, and a lot of people are waiting for us," Raghad said. ■
