News from AFRICA

Telemedicine: European Cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa through a Satellite Link

Date: 4th April 2007
Source: TIE's News     ( http://tie.telemed.org/ )
(From: Medical News Today)

A European telemedicine task force has proposed using satellite technology to deliver health information and communication services to sub-Saharan Africa.Three specific activities were proposed by the task force that met recently in Botswana : increasing that area's health workforce, increasing the number of available clinical services and a third aimed at strengthening the intelligence gathering capacity of the area's health systems.

These demonstration projects will be used to inform and to help develop a framework for extending eHealth, which should be considered as part of the European Union Strategy for Africa commitment to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance interconnectivity in Africa . The potential of this greater interconnectivity, which will be supported under the tenth European Development Fund (EDF), to extend the reach of health and health services will be tested and demonstrated through these proposed projects. (more...)