"There is still an ongoing process to identify personnel to be trained and work with the Indians (engineers) noting that they are only supporting the project for five years in terms of equipment and human resource," said Health and Sanitation Minister Sheku Tejan Koroma last week while briefing journalists on the current state of the Telemedicine Project -- the part of the broader pan-African plan in which Sierra Leone is participating.
The Telemedicine Project aims at improving the skills of medical practitioners by helping them follow certain medical procedures. Once completed, the project will connect with 54 countries, including India.
Other challenges facing Sierra Leone include the need to integrate the existing District Health Information System (DHIS) into the network. In addition, funds to maintain and extend the network to the provinces have not yet been allocated.
In other African countries, irregular power supply has been identified as a major hindrance to the success of the project but Koroma did not consider it to be a main factor for Sierra Leone.
The Telemedicine Project is relevant to Sierra Leone because "it will provide our medical practitioners, especially junior medical officers that have just completed medical school, the opportunity to acquire new skills without having to spend much money," Koroma said.
The project uses software that is linked with medical institutions in India via Senegal, which serves as the nucleus for the network in West Africa.
"The Indian engineers have installed the dish and completed the networking aspect of the project," Koroma said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Olusegun Abolaji Ogundeji
Quelle/Source: Computerworld, 29.10.2009
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