Building Health, Building Peace: What eight years of global telehealth has taught us

A child with a fever. A post-partum mother with a blood clot. A heart rhythm that doesn’t look right.

Over the past eight years, we’ve supported frontline providers facing these cases and thousands more—all via telehealth. Since 2017, World Telehealth Initiative has partnered with healthcare teams in under-resourced settings across the globe, connecting them with medical experts worldwide to support patient care, provide hands on training and collaboration. We’ve learned a lot in the process—about what strengthens healthcare systems and what doesn’t.

When we started delivering telehealth support to under-resourced settings eight years ago, we knew the technology was crucial. What has proven to matter just as much is trust—built across borders, through consistency, respect and learning together. Here is what we’ve learned:

1.      Human connection is foundational

When clinicians connect directly, they exchange more than medical knowledge. This exchange builds trust, confidence, and professional respect across distance and cultural differences. Both sides are learning – clinicians in low-resource settings are learning the latest techniques and soaking up knowledge from global specialists, while the specialists learn about diseases they rarely see in their region and the challenges of practicing in a low resource setting. Over time, that connection fosters camaraderie, trust, friendship, shared knowledge, and deep respect for each other as colleagues.  

2.      Consistency changes what’s possible

A single training or intervention may solve an immediate problem. But ongoing, regular support creates the conditions for deeper change. It allows empower providers to address local health challenges and strengthen low-resource health systems for long term change. It’s not reactionary but planned and transformational.

3.      Technology is only part of the answer 

Internet access and diagnostic enabled telehealth technology are necessary but just one piece of the puzzle. The real magic happens when technology is combined with integrity, compassion, and shared purpose. Its critical that the technology is integrated into the local health system’s workflow, and used to address their needs in the way they see fit. Virtual care only works when it fits real-world conditions, respecting and working within existing local structures.

4.      Virtual care is not a compromise; it is a catalyst

 It accelerates diagnoses, expands reach, and builds local capacity

Virtual support can strengthen local systems by providing access to expertise otherwise unavailable. It accelerates diagnoses, expands reach, and reinforces local decision-making. By building the skills of local providers and increasing access to specialized care for patients, it builds the capacity of the local health system without displacing local leadership. 

5.      Global health and global stability are intrinsically linked

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to many global healthcare champions because global healthcare promotes world peace. Healthcare supports everyday life, and creates reliability where systems are fragile. Strengthening healthcare helps communities remain resilient amid disruption and change. Easing suffering promotes peace - improved health outcomes can reduce social tensions, strengthen community resilience, and create a more stable and peaceful environment. Global health affects all of us.