The Promise and Problems of Telemedicine


eHealth enables rural health clinics with no in-house specialist care to obtain expert consultation and diagnosis through various information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as video-conferencing, or the e-mailing of digital images of patients to specialists in urban referral hospitals.

However, telemedicine projects already operational in sub-Saharan Africa show that the region presents several challenges concerning the demands of eHealth technology.

ICTs central to telemedicine tend to be taken for granted in developed countries, but are often lacking in sub-Saharan Africa. Catharine Omaswa of the Ugandan National eHealth Committee noted, for instance, that her country might only have a modern ICT infrastructure by 2025.

A lack of computer skills on the part of health care personnel and limited understanding of the role of ICTs were also cited as pitfalls.

All of this leads to a sobering question, said Maurice Mars of the Department of TeleHealth at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the South African coastal city of Durban: "Are the First World standards of telemedicine going to allow telemedicine to flourish in Africa?".......Read More

 

 

Source: www.ipsnews.net


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