As part of the STAIRS project, a close collaboration between the Hirsch Institute for Tropical Medicine (HITM) and Charité Berlin enabled the procurement of the necessary hardware and software to establish a telemedicine infrastructure in Asella and Addis Ababa.

In July 2025, Dr. Wiltrud Abels from Charité Berlin, together with the HITM team, conducted the first implementation phase. During this phase, iPads and mobile stands were installed, and training sessions were held in the intensive care and emergency departments of the Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital, as well as the intensive care unit at St. Paul’s Hospital in Addis Ababa. The final delivery of the equipment took place in August 2025. This was followed by a second round of training by the HITM team and the first testing phase in collaboration with Charité Berlin.

The goal of the project is to enable peripheral hospitals to establish early contact with experts at Charité Berlin or larger local clinics for medical consultations in areas such as antimicrobial stewardship (ABS) or intensive care medicine. In addition, this will allow timely requests for patient transfers of critically ill individuals.