Burns? Call Morten

Welcome to the world of telemedicine, where, with an internet connection, help is never far away.

Via apps such as WhatsApp and Teams, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff working in remote or under-resourced locations can get support from specialists based around the world. 

With a tap or a click, an expert team can be assembled.

Surgeon Morten Kildal explains…

An alert arrives at the MSF telemedicine platform: It’s from our team in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of their patients is a twelve-year-old boy with severe wounds on his legs. MSF's local team have attached photographs of the wounds and are now asking for advice on how to treat them.

“Within half an hour, experts from around the world had answered the call,” says Morten Kildal, an MSF plastic surgeon and burns specialist.

“My role was to give advice on wound treatment, pain relief and surgery,”

Morten is one of over 300 experts who are part of MSF’s telemedicine consultation platform, which is managed from a coordination centre in Ottawa, Canada.

In 2022, 200 MSF projects used the platform and over 4,000 requests for advice were sent out.

The MSF teams in Sierra Leone, Syria and Kyrgyzstan used the service the most.

Morten has been involved in the telemedicine project for several years.

He’s worked as an MSF surgeon in Gaza and Ukraine but is usually employed at the Academic Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden.

The work with the telemedicine project is completely voluntary and is done alongside his full-time job. The alerts often come in the evenings and weekends.

“I mainly get questions about burn patients. But it can also be about severe wounds after accidents or bites from animals such as snakes or hyenas,” says Morten.

Teams with specialisms in different fields are often formed around each alert to provide the most comprehensive care possible.

“I think this way of working should be used more everywhere, including in my home country, Sweden,” continues Morten.

“There are many patients with severe wounds who are transferred between different clinics for years. Whereas joint specialist assessments similar to what we do in the telemedicine initiative could help.”