Masta Nomad support Dr Daniel Grace and his team on his medical expedition with Virtual Doctors to Zambia.

October 2024

Dr Daniel Grace, one of Nomad’s remote travel health doctors, has recently returned from an overlanding medical expedition to Zambia. The expedition was born out of raising awareness of health inequalities in Zambia and illustrating how digital connectivity can improve this.

Outside of his work with Nomad, Daniel is the volunteer medical director for the Virtual Doctors, the UK’s leading telemedicine charity. The charity was set up over 17 years ago by Mr Huw Jones, a former safari guide who worked in Zambia during the 1980s and 90s, where he witnessed significant preventable morbidity and mortality.

In conjunction with the Zambian Ministry of Health the charity uses a bespoke mobile phone app to connect isolated health centres in rural Zambia and Malawi with volunteer doctors, to provide advice and guidance, and empower healthcare in rural communities.

Daniel and his team visited over 20 healthcare facilities across Zambia, ranging from district hospitals to rural clinics and onboarded 68 new clinicians to the Virtual Doctors telemedicine service. The charity now supports over 300 clinicians throughout Zambia and their project has improved patient management, reduced unnecessary hospital referrals and provided educational benefits to rural healthcare workers.

Lanterns

One of the biggest challenges that healthcare providers are facing at present is limited power. There are frequent power outages because of drought and a reliance on hydro-electric power and this has a huge impact upon basic sanitation, lighting, and the ability to charge devices.

The team distributed multiple solar lanterns in conjunction with their partner Solight, to help clinicians and wards combat these challenges. Daniel explained why this was so important:

‘Many clinics only get power for a few hours each day and the ability to safely examine patients and deliver babies using solar lanterns will have a profound impact on their ability to deliver safe patient care’.

Training

Daniel was keen to ensure that the expedition had some sustainable educational outcomes, and pre-hospital trauma and snakebite were chosen as two areas to focus on, as these were topics that frequently came up on the telemedicine platform.

The majority of snake bites occur in rural areas of Zambia, where people rely upon subsistence farming, fishing, hunting and herding to support their livelihood. This means the risk of snake bites are high, particularly in the rainy seasons, and treatment can be difficult to access.

Daniel and his team worked with their in country partners Snake Safety Zambia and On Call Africa to host critical snakebite training to empower rural health care workers to cascade training within their communities and disseminate first aid advice to try and improve outcomes.

In addition, trauma training pilots took place in three provinces, which were invaluable in empowering local healthcare providers. Both of these pilot projects will go on to form part of a larger project in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.

Medical Kit

Travelling over 3,500 kilometres it was essential that Daniel and his team were equipped with a comprehensive medical kit. Masta Nomad’s leading Travel health pharmacy led by Jason Gibbs sponsored the expedition by providing an expedition medical kit specific to Daniel’s needs.

Comprehensive specific medical kits are essential for medical overland trips like this. We asked Daniel about the travel health and safety of his team.

‘Luckily we all kept relatively well but it was reassuring to know that we had a detailed kit with us should we need it, which all feeds into the expedition risk assessment and planning stages. The main things we used were the oral rehydration dissolvable tablets and some anti sickness for travel sickness- no big sick issues this time which was a relief’.

Daniel and his team continue to strengthen healthcare delivery in Zambia and have more plans for the future. You can find out more about their expedition on their website www.livingstonerevisited.com and https://www.virtualdoctors.org/

If you are an explorer, trekker, professional on expeditions, charity worker or travelling to remote locations and would like further information on bespoke medical kits contact Jason Gibbs at Pharmacy@nomadtravel.co.uk