WHITIA's Healthy Communities Initiative
In the United States, inner cities and rural areas have gaps in community healthcare similar to the developing world. These gaps lead to disparate health outcomes for low-income, immigrant and minority populations. These gaps also increase the overall cost of healthcare delivery. Untreated/inadequately treated medical conditions worsen and become more expensive to treat later on.
Community health centers (CHCs) play a vital role by serving as the medical home for low-income patients. They provide medically underserved communities with high quality, affordable primary and preventive health care. They improve access to care for patients regardless of their ability to pay. This cost effective, community-based care reduces the need for more expensive hospital and specialty care, saving taxpayers billions of dollars annually.
One of the primary gaps in community healthcare is a lack of X-ray services. X-ray services are critical to the effective delivery of medical care. Up to 60% of medical conditions seen in first-referral settings require X-ray analysis for proper diagnosis and treatment. In fact, X-ray is the most frequently used medical tool after the stethoscope.
X-ray analysis is critical to detecting and diagnosing many conditions including tuberculosis. Often called the “forgotten disease” because many believed that it had been eliminated decades ago, this highly infectious respiratory disease has experienced a global resurgence through a lack of awareness and reduced vigilance, an increase in HIV/AIDS infections, and insufficient public health investments. Inadequate TB control measures present a formidable public health challenge as one person with an untreated active TB infection will infect 10 to 15 new people every year until treated for the disease.
WHITIA’s purpose is to provide key community based medical facilities with access to affordable, digital X-ray equipment and medical expertise to:
WHITIA will make this vision a reality by working with healthcare stakeholders to identify community based providers who, when equipped with appropriate digital X-ray and telemedicine systems, can provide the greatest benefits to their communities.
To begin this effort, WHITIA has selected two local community based healthcare providers—the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Tuberculosis Control Program and Alivio Medical Center (AMC). Each provider is representative of key healthcare stakeholders. CDPH will receive WHITIA’s Remi-d X-ray system designed for TB detection and Alivio will receive a DR WHIS-RAD system designed for multi-purpose X-ray. Both systems were specifically created to meet the needs of medical providers in limited resource settings.