Case Study number 3

Dr Ogola wants to implement new IT systems based on the improving mobile phone technology to
support medical practices in outlying rural areas by providing:
– telemedicine outreach to village clinics in the province
– education and training to medical and paramedical staff
– effective distribution of medical information.

1. What cell phone infrastructure exists in East Africa? Which nations have poor or no cell service? Which have good cell service? How does "good" cell service in East Africa compare to cell service in the US?

In 2006 it sounds like the there is some pretty good infrastructure in africa. an article that I read says that you need to have an unlocked GSM card and a Sims card so that you don't get huge rates and then you can call home. this article was for people traveling in Africa, so that they can make phone calls.

most countries now have cell phone service, but they operate at a different frequency, so a GSM phone is needed.

South Africa seems to have good Cell Phone service. I don't think that it is fair to compare it to the service in the USA because of the different frequencies of cell service.

2. How does telemedicine treatment work in theory? Find an example in the real world, and explain how the reality compares to the theory. Discuss whether current telemedicine is feasible in East Africa. Discuss the feasibility of future telemedicine practices in East Africa.

Telemedicine is the use of telephone or internet to get medical information to remote areas. from the 1950 to the 70's it was tested but it was decided to be too costly. in 1996 2400 non federal hospitals were asked if they were participating in Telemedicine and 17% said yes.

Right now Telemedicine is going on in India. One program is ATNF. it is a US based company, and it uses phone and video conferencing to diagnose patients.

3. Discuss the feasibility of telemedicine for training purposes.

I think that Telemedicine is a very good idea to install. For training purposes it can be a benfit and also a hinder. it can be a benefit because there can be someone watching over you and tell you when you do something wrong. but it could also be a hinder because the doctors might think that they do not need to know anything because there is going to be someone else telling them how to do things so that they won't try to learn.

Sources

http://goafrica.about.com/b/2006/04/02/using-a-cell-phone-while-traveling-in-africa.htm

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http://askville.amazon.com/international-cell-phone-company/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3737067

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http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?ID=LSIM-ZA01

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemedicine

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http://www.annals.org/content/129/2/123.full

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http://www.telemedicineindia.com/ thier whole website is very good

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