Swinfen Telemedicine (Swinfen Charitable Trust) – A Platform for Communicating Health Care Worldwide
Swinfen Telemedicine is our new overseas charity at St Michael & All Angels and one of our three principal charity partners. On a pro bono basis, it gives access to specialist medical expertise for doctors and nurses working in remote regions of the world. Read more on its website.
Funding from St Michael & All Angels, over three years, will allow Swinfen to upgrade its App and maintain its technology platforms, facilitating broader reach and more effective (and reliable) communications with medics on the front line.
Its mission is to build the world’s free medical lifeline:
To help the poor, sick, and disabled in countries affected by poverty, catastrophes, or conflict, regardless of colour, race, or creed, by providing Free of Charge, the facilities for access by remote users with consultants through a simple low-cost telemedicine system.
How it works
Doctors & health care workers contact Swinfen through the internet. Those without regular access to the internet, or an electrical supply, can use the unique Swinfen Mobile App, as many of these areas do have a mobile signal. The App provides referring doctors with access to specialist medical advice for their patients, on any health issues needing further specialist knowledge. It is free of charge, and avoids the need for lengthy journeys to get help .
The App has proved a huge asset to Swinfen’s remotest links in places such as Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Micronesia, Sudan, Yemen and Nepal since 2014. It is now trying to raise funds to upgrade this App. Can you help?
A thank you from Katherine Davies of Swinfen Telemedicine
We were absolutely thrilled to see that St Michael & All Angels Church has so very kindly chosen The Swinfen Charitable Trust as one of their chosen charities – we really are so very grateful, and any money raised will go a long way to helping us in our endeavour to provide specialist telemedical advice to the remoter regions of the world.
– Just this week we have put on a new link in Dhading Province, Nepal and three hospitals in the Pacific Basin & Micronesia, in very low-lying vulnerable communities and we are busy dealing with many cases that range across the whole spectrum of medical specialities and age groups.
– We had an approach from Tonga, the week before the disaster there, and are hoping that when able they will join us so that we can provide much needed support to the communities there.
– The App that we are raising funds for is even more vital in these areas, as often the communities have mobile signals when the internet is intermittent or lost entirely – and therefore we wanted to thank you so much for including us in your wonderful initiative.
Katherine Davies, Trustee
The founders: Lord Roger Swinfen, MBE & Lady Patricia Swinfen, MBE
In 1977, Roger Swinfen gave his inaugural speech to the UK House of Lords. The topic? “The far wider implications of broadcasting and telecommunications”. He said “Television can be used as a teaching aid in our universities, hospitals and technical colleges… In medicine, where rare, difficult and particularly dangerous operations take place, I should have thought that this was of considerable advantage.”
With his wife Patricia Swinfen, they founded the Swinfen Charitable Trust and set up the first telemedical link. From this small start, the charity has grown. It now provides a ray of hope for the poor and vulnerable in societies across the world, enabling the patient to get help Free of Charge and health care practitioners to further their studies by learning from some of the best specialists in the world.