Even in the most remote parts of the Amazon, telemedicine has been making it possible to offer remote lung, heart and eye exams. Now remote diagnostics has taken a big leap forward, and it will help the environment as well as human patients.
Three “medical totems” installed at a public health clinic in Jordão, Acre, a remote state in the Amazon that has the lowest doctor-patient ratio in Brazil, will measure nine vital signs, including blood pressure, heart performance, oxygen levels, temperature, height and weight. And in a couple of months, they will also allow for something previously unavailable — virtual appointments, with translation in the local Indigenous language.
Each virtual medical appointment will avoid the emission of around 12 pounds of carbon monoxide, because it saves a two hour flight. Starting in April,“if the totems allow appointments with certain specialists, we won’t need to transfer them, they will be treated here,” said Fabiana de Sá, the director of the public health clinic in Jordão.
Dr. Eduardo Bulisani, an orthopedist at the electronics manufacturer Foxconn in Jundiaí, in São Paulo state, developed the machines. He travelled almost 2,000 miles to train dozens of workers at the local public health clinic to use the machines he helped to develop.
“It’s intuitive, it’s easy,” Bulisani says. “In two minutes, the data is available for the patient. AI compiles the results, and it goes to the cloud for doctors to see them,” he said, referring to the servers accessed over the internet
The “medical totems”, which cost around $18,000 each, are the first of about 250 being installed across Brazil and Paraguay.
Foxconn employees already use the technology and Bulisani says it has caught serious health issues that people were not aware of. “They can reduce complications, hospitalizations and also the cost of the public health system,” he explained.
Cesar Carvalho, one of three doctors who work in Jordão, works at the local public health clinic and also runs the nonprofit Instituto Flor da Floresta, which supports Indigenous medicine and nutrition.
Carvalho said he often struggles to reach patients in Jordão, which is spread out over an area almost twice the size of Rhode Island. “When we go to remote areas, sometimes we have to drag the boat, or we can’t get to where patients are, or we have to walk across the river,” he said. His cousin, Dr. Bulisani, contacted him about the totems.
Getting the medical totems where they need to go was a challenge, said Ricardo Moura, a project manager for FPFTech, a nonprofit organization that is coordinating the process. “The airplane chairs had to be removed to fit the totems and it took two trips to bring them.”
As well as the three medical totems at health facilities in Jordão, another four will be placed inside special cabins in Indigenous villages in the area. The cabins will allow for patient privacy and protect the totems from damage. The machines will be powered by solar panels, will have internet and also include translations to the local Indigenous language. The municipal government will maintain them.
Carvalho and other local doctors are currently contacting specialists who might be willing to work on tele-appointments. Carvalho said it’s worth the effort because telemedicine is also good for the environment.
Sources:
Measuring patients’ vital signs virtually in the heart of the Amazon. The World, Mar. 9, 2026
The computer will see you now. The World, Mar. 2, 2026
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