Message-ID: <199605042155.RAA30949@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 17:55:27 -0400 From: "Susan.Almy." <mailto:Susan_Almy@VALLEY.NET> Subject: Telemedicine To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Royce Robbins wrote: > Recently there was a thread on the issue of using "The Internet" in Africa
> to provide improved health care in rural areas via telemedicine.
I apologize if this was already suggested, I only signed on a week ago and can't find the rest of this thread. I hope this hasn't already been covered..
Telemedicine is obviously too expensive for 99% of Africa, but many villages in all but the poorest African countries are now endowed with a TV set and generator, which the owner feeds with videotapes from a regional distributor and often pays for by charging admission to his neighbors.
Many Africans who have been overseas have come back with hand-held camcorders. How about putting these facts together and getting medical schools to put together a program of amateur medical training videos for continuing education of the doctors in those places? The videos could even be distributed through the same channels, but for health personnel only. Of course, the WHO could be putting out more professional ones at the same time, for the schools to use as they wish. Most rural doctors in Africa didn't get enough training in the first place, have no updating and especially have only the drug company salesmen to tell them which new drugs are worth prescribing (why doesn't the WHO basic list get more circulation?). Rural doctors are also hopelessly overworked if they're any good, but an hour a week should be manageable if it teaches them something useful; a request for topics would help ensure that.