IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

A group of private health professionals under the aegis of National e-health working Group said tele-health has a huge future in Nigeria with ready telephone users of about 67 million. Some of the challenges to telemedicine as noted at the conference included lack of policy, lack of public funding, licensing provider, reimbursement, fear of malpractice, high bandwidth telecommunications cost and inadequate power supply.

The experts, who gathered at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan for a workshop titled ‘Telemedicine: Future and Challenges in Nigeria’, said telemedicine seeks to bridge the gap of access to good health between the rural and urban dwellers, describing it as ‘a confluence of communication technology, information technology, bio-medical engineering and medical science.

Chief Medical Director (CMD) of EBSUTH, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu while receiving the President EBSUTH Staff Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society Limited, Dr. Chidi Esike that presented him an award giving to the society by the National Institute of cooperative professionals, said the hospital has obtained the service of medical informatics expert who he said has been doing so well to develop IT facilities in the hospital.

Adebola, who spoke in Lagos recently, said such strategies would help in coordinating the use of telemedicine and e-health tools in national health system.

He said government must put in place a policy that would enable the private sector take advantage of e-health services in the country.

Addressing the opening session, the Minister of Science and Technology, Alhaji Alhassan Bako Zaku disclosed that the success recorded by the pilot project of Telemedicine had been acknowledged by the various state governments in the country leading to the directive given to their various ministries of health to set up their networks to reach the rural areas and enhance referral systems.

At a recent session with the media Professor Akin Osibogun, chief medical director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, said telemedicine employed modern technology to improve medical education and would also be used for communication between medical experts in Nigeria and abroad.

This observation was made at the 4th Nigerian conference on Telemedicine and e-Health in Gombe, where it was noted that telemedicine and e-health is essential to the improvement of quality and accessible healthcare delivery in the country.

There is no gain-saying that the nation’s healthcare sector since independence has been plagued with the challenge of achieving the delivery of quality healthcare to the majority of its populace. These are evident in the state of inadequate infrastructure and lack of basic amenities some healthcare institutions in the country are confronted with. Though successive administrations have carried out one form of refurbishment of facilities at these health institutions, some existing health services are either not affordable or inaccessible to the vulnerable group, especially the poor and people living in rural and underdeveloped areas.

The project, which was prosecuted by a consortium of Nigerian experts through the Federal ministry of Science and Technology under the headship of Professor Turner Isoun, was intended to bridge the huge healthcare delivery gap that currently exists in the country by deploying Information Technologies to bypass logistic challenges.

WHO has been providing cameras, computers and other equipment to North Korea to help the reclusive, impoverished country connect a main hospital in Pyongyang with medical facilities in 10 provinces. The system is designed to allow doctors to talk to each other to provide additional services to rural patients.

"The woman´s condition was serious but the doctors were helpless," Dr Amit Pokhrel, a doctor at the hospital, said. He said that the dilemma before the hospital at the time was whether to refer the patient to the nearest referral center, which is more than eight hours away by an ambulance. The hospital refers complicated cases sometimes to a nearby hospital at Pithauragadh, India, but on that day it was already dark and the border was closed.

With Patan hospital as the hub, the government of Nepal has started telemedicine service in 25 Himalayan districts including Acchham, Sindhuli and Khotang. Without doubt, telemedicine will prove to be useful in increasing public’s access to health facilities. Lack of road connectivity and poor infrastructures in general, and lack of good hospitals and trained doctors in particular, will be addressed by telemedicine. However, with the example of Nangi clinic, this article will point out the problems that telemedicine might have to face in Nepal. I assume Nangi clinic in Ramche VDC of Myagdi is more or less representative of other clinics with telemedicine service in the hilly and mountainous districts of Nepal.

With this, telemedicine service has now started in district hospitals in 25 mountainous districts across the country. The programme that has been started by the Ministry of Health and Population is expected to benefit rural people who have been deprived of quality health services due to geographical and technical difficulties.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal inaugurated the telemedicine and SAARC telemedicine programme, which will have the Central Coordination Desk at Patan Hoispital, amidst a function in the Capital today and said the service may turn beneficial to provide comfortable and easy excess among the rural people.

According to the hospital source, the service has been beneficial for the people of 25 districts in the mountainous and hilly regions.

The service has proved a great relief to the rural people who have been deprived of health facilities due to many reasons including the lack of resources, said Dr Kamal Raj Dhital.

The service was resumed after equipment was installed at the district hospital by the government. Although equipment of hundreds of thousands of rupees has been used, the hospital has started services with the ADSL internet service of Nepal Telecom.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal today formally inaugurated the rural telemedicine centre and SAARC telemedicine centre at Patan Hospital.

PM Nepal said the innovation has broken the distance barrier and increased public’s access to health facilities.

Telemedicine would help improve healthcare facilities that would help decrease healthcare burden of bigger health centres. said the prime minister.

The initiative is part of a wider telemedicine initiative by the West Coast and Canterbury district health boards, in which hospitals and health clinics have been fitted out with video conferencing equipment so health professionals can conduct virtual clinics and consult with colleagues in the South Island.

According to Associate Professor Michael Sullivan, clinical leader of the telemedicine initiative, “The key uses of the equipment so far have been in pediatrics, for virtual clinics, and for cancer care, to assess patients undergoing chemotherapy.”

The radical new plan for Taumarunui, Tokoroa and Te Kuiti hospitals will enable doctors at Waikato Hospital to give advice and support to their counterparts even in urgent situations.