One of the most promising ICT development projects in RDB/IT division is the e-health project, which involves 3 main projects: the store and forward system, the tele-medicine video conferencing and the real time tele-medicine system.
According to Nkubito Bakuramutsa, they have now reached the final stage of the store and forward system, which is ready for use.
"We have set up the system in two hospitals, Ruhengeri and Kabgayi district hospitals; the two hospitals are connected to the main national referral hospital, which is King Faisal," he explains. "The system works like this: a patient is diagnosed at for example Kabgayi, where the doctor will do the necessary tests, the results of which are sent via the system to the referral doctor in King Faisal. The latter then examines the tests and proposes the treatment."
Dominique Rwakunda, the director general of Kabgayi hospital, adds that the system is only in its first implementation phase, but there is a hope that once it gets into full swing it will help solve many problems.
"We often transfer patients to referral hospitals such as King Faisal and CHUK, but regularly documents get lost or patients fail to explain to referral doctors what they have been diagnosed with and which preliminary drugs they have been given. With the store and forward system, we send all relevant documents and test results directly to the referral hospitals, so doctors can examine them and treat the patients accordingly," Rwakunda says.
Wilson Muyenzi, the e-Rwanda project manager at RDB/IT, explains that together with Dash-s Technology Company they are currently training 25 doctors on the usage of those systems.
"Now we want to embark on the second part of the tele-medicine program, which is video conferencing and real-time tele-medicine, where a referral doctor can assist the doctors in remote areas with surgery, without leaving their own hospital. We are now in the process of acquiring the necessary equipment such as cameras and other related equipment," Muyenzi says.
He adds, however, that a main stumbling block for the implementation of all these projects is the slow connectivity speed, which is why they have first to settle the issue of bandwidth which will result in a 10 Gb high speed internet connection.
Richard Bomboma, the country director of the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (SIDA) which is one of the main sponsors of RDB/IT, says he is much impressed with the achievements in ICT in the country.
"It is much better than what we expected, we are very satisfied," he remarks. "I am aware that some challenges remain but I am sure that with continued bilateral cooperation and support, we will overcome them."
Nkubito Bakuramutsa, for his part, points out that they are also working hard on capacity building so that Rwanda has the specialists to set up and manage such systems.
"We want to invest more in capacity building, so that finally we can control the whole system," he says. "We are now expecting a good number of people who have gone for postgraduate studies in ICT, so the future looks bright."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rodrigue Rwirahira
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 28.08.2009
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