Project Coordinator:
Elson Montagno, MD, PhD

These terminals are stripped down PCs (sometimes called "slim clients" in computer parlance). They have a flat panel color video display, full keyboard, mouse and a small plastic tower with no disks inside. They are permanently connected via a 3-foot parabolic antenna to a low-orbit satellite network (LOS), which requires low power to work than geosynchronous satellites. All software is stored in the network server, which is located in the 20^th floor of a gleaming, ultramodern glass tower in the plush business district of São Paulo, 4,000 miles to the South.

Thanks to state-of-the art technology, these small PCs have a lot  of power. Transmission speeds as high as 512 kbits per second can be achieved, which is good enough for full-screen videoconferencing and broadcasting of TV programs directly to the PCs screens.
 

New Capabilities Brought by Technology

In this way, the medical students will be able to:

• conference with their teachers and physicians, not only in their home base in Manaus, but also with the ultra-sophisticated hospitals in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, in case of need;
• transmit images of their patients, electrocardiograms, images of microscopic samples for malarial diagnosis, and much more;
• surf the Internet, to look for medical information, resources that can help them to diagnose and treat better their patients, and continue to study for their forthcoming examinations;
• watch educational broadcastings from the best medical schools in the South, which will be relayed by the EduMed Institute, and to record patient education programs to show to the village people later;
• send to the health authority data about disease incidence, epidemics, which are just beginning and order needed medical supplies and vaccines.