Status, barriers and potential of telemedical systems in African countries

In African countries Telemedicine, mHealth and eLearning projects have recently been or will be implemented. This gives the great chance to learn from the experience made in countries where these systems have been in use for quite some time. Governmental strategies and agencies are rarely in place and could be one factor to improve the use of these systems. The barriers to Telemedicine mentioned in African countries were too high perceived cost, a not supportive organizational culture and an underdeveloped infrastructure. The barriers to mHealth are similar with a lack of knowledge of applications, too high perceived cost and an underdeveloped infrastructure. For eLearning the most important barriers were also an underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of policy frameworks and to high cost. So the missing infrastructure and cost issues seem to be particularly pressing problems in African countries. An approach could be to identify applications that can be easily implemented (e.g. computer with internet connection and camera) at low cost. With such applications, access to healthcare could be improved in rural areas. Quality of healthcare could be improved by providing second opinion or specialist opinions on a national or international level. eLearning has the potential to improve the medical knowledge base for medical professionals.