For World's Sick, Care Via E-Mail

The Swinfen Charitable Trust, a telemedicine charity, uses e-mail to link sick people in poor, remote or dangerous parts of the world with hundreds of medical specialists in some of the world's finest hospitals. Doctors in about 140 hospitals and clinics in 39 nations use the organization to seek help for patients requiring specialized care beyond their capabilities. Through the trust, they can be put in e-mail contact -- often within hours -- with one or more of the 400 specialists who work without pay as part of the trust's network. Doctors in distant areas, including Afghanistan, Antarctica and the Solomon Islands, e-mail photos, X-rays, test results and case notes. The information is reviewed by specialists, who respond by e-mail to help make diagnoses and recommend treatments. The only thing linking all the need and all the expertise is a desktop computer, an improbable global nerve center set amid a cherry orchard and wheat fields in the soft English hills about 75 miles southeast of London.