Experiences combining tele-medicine and powerline communication (PLC) to improve medical services in Porto Alegre/RS/Brazil

This paper describes the project PO@-Saude, a collaborative research project among the following brazilian institutions: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), CETA/SENAI-RS - Applied Research Center, PROCEMPA - the ICT Company from the City of Porto Alegre, and CEEE - the State Electrical Energy Company), which combines Tele-Medicine and Power Line Communication Technologies in order to improve medical services delivered to low income families in public healthcare units located in Porto Alegre suburbs. The first results obtained within the scope of the project are very encouraging: absenteeism has dropped from more than 12% down to less than 3% and waiting time for ultrasound exams was reduced from 4 months to less than 4 weeks.