Medical app proving vital in refugee camps

This, along with the sheer number of people involved, has led to a huge humanitarian crisis for authorities and healthcare providers due to the appalling conditions in some of the camps.

The scale of the task has meant that deploying significant numbers of trained medical personnel on the ground has proved difficult. However, a free medical app, which is enabling doctors to upload, share and discuss medical images on a closed professional network is proving invaluable.

The MedShr app was originally developed in 2003 as a platform to connect doctors together and which would enable them to discuss clinical cases in a secure environment. Because case discussion is integral to how doctors learn (from medical students to specialist surgeons), the importance of the MedShr app has grown in parallel with the refugee camps themselves.

Capable of connecting specialists with support, diagnoses and treatment, MedShr has been working with organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières and The Red Cross to work out how to support doctors in the field and contact informal groups of volunteer doctors.