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Is telemedicine the panacea for Sub-Saharan Africa's medical nightmare?

Published: 01 July 2004 Publication History

Abstract

"Ever since my eye swelled up, I've gone to church to pray for a cure...I always knew He would send a way to make me better---I just didn't know it was going to be from London," says Anna Mobutsu, a 23-year-old farm laborer, who cannot imagine journeying farther than a bus ride from her home in the small African town of Nelspruit. An illiterate single parent with a 7-year-old and an elderly mother to support on about $56 a month, Anna does not even own a TV to introduce her to a world beyond her own. "But this afternoon I went to London" [2].

References

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Dlamini, H. The telemedicine experience. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Nairobi, Africa, 2001.
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Fenster, P. Telemedicine. The Times. South Africa (Mar. 14, 2000).
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Fraser, H. and McGrath, S. Economical solutions are available to support health care in remote areas. British Medical J. 321 (2000), 465--466.
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HealthNet. What is HealthNet? www.healthnet.org/whatishn.php.
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Hu, P., Chau, P., Sheng, O., and Yan, K. Examining the technology acceptance model using physician acceptance of telemedicine technology. J. MIS 16, 2 (1999), 91--112.
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Huston, T. and Huston, J. Is telemedicine a practical reality? Commun. ACM, 43, 6 (June 2000), 91--95.
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International Telecommunications Union. Mozambique unveils leading edge telemedicine facility; www.itu.int/newsarchive/press/releases/1998/98-01.html.
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International Telecommunications Union. Telemedicine and developing countries. Telecommunications Development Bureau. Doc. 2/116 (2000). Geneva, Switzerland.
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Kifle, M., Solomon, A., Mbarika, V., and Okoli, C. Critical success factors for telemedicine implementation in Ethiopia. In Proceedings of the Information Resource Management Association (IRMA 2004) International Conference. New Orleans, LA.
[10]
Mbarika, V., Byrd, T. A., Raymond, J. Growth of teledensity in least developed countries: Need for a mitigated euphoria. J. Global Information Management 10, 2 (2002), 14--27.
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Rodger, J. and Pendharkar, P. Using telemedicine in the Department of Defense. Commun. ACM 43 (Mar. 2000), 17--18.
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Welz, R. Implementation of telemedicine. ITU Telecom Africa. Forum 2001. Johannesburg, South Africa.

Cited By

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  • (2023)Telehealth in Africa: evolution and transformative impact before, during and after COVID-19: a narrative reviewJournal of Global Health Science10.35500/jghs.2023.5.e145:2Online publication date: 2023
  • (2023)mHealth in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe: A systematic review comparing the use and availability of mHealth approaches in sub-Saharan Africa and EuropeDIGITAL HEALTH10.1177/205520762311809729Online publication date: 21-Jun-2023
  • (2023)Current evidence on the use of mHealth approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping reviewHealth Policy and Technology10.1016/j.hlpt.2023.10080612:4(100806)Online publication date: Dec-2023
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Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM  Volume 47, Issue 7
Has the Internet become indispensable?
July 2004
82 pages
ISSN:0001-0782
EISSN:1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/1005817
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 2004
Published in CACM Volume 47, Issue 7

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Cited By

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  • (2023)Telehealth in Africa: evolution and transformative impact before, during and after COVID-19: a narrative reviewJournal of Global Health Science10.35500/jghs.2023.5.e145:2Online publication date: 2023
  • (2023)mHealth in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe: A systematic review comparing the use and availability of mHealth approaches in sub-Saharan Africa and EuropeDIGITAL HEALTH10.1177/205520762311809729Online publication date: 21-Jun-2023
  • (2023)Current evidence on the use of mHealth approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping reviewHealth Policy and Technology10.1016/j.hlpt.2023.10080612:4(100806)Online publication date: Dec-2023
  • (2021)The development of telemedicine programs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress and associated challengesHealth and Technology10.1007/s12553-021-00626-712:1(33-46)Online publication date: 25-Nov-2021
  • (2017)The role of industry infrastructure in telehealth innovations: a multi-level analysis of a telestroke programEuropean Journal of Information Systems10.1057/palgrave.ejis.300071816:6(738-750)Online publication date: 19-Dec-2017
  • (2016)mHealth in Resource-Constrained EnvironmentsE-Health and Telemedicine10.4018/978-1-4666-8756-1.ch031(619-636)Online publication date: 2016
  • (2014)mHealth in Resource-Constrained EnvironmentsInternational Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development10.4018/ijskd.20140101026:1(18-35)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2014
  • (2013)Assessing E-Health in AfricaCases on Web 2.0 in Developing Countries10.4018/978-1-4666-2515-0.ch016(442-467)Online publication date: 2013
  • (2012)The challenge of taking baby steps—Preliminary insights into telemedicine adoption in RwandaHealth Policy and Technology10.1016/j.hlpt.2012.10.0041:4(207-213)Online publication date: Dec-2012
  • (2010)Village eLearningProceedings of the 24th BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference10.5555/2146303.2146376(463-467)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2010
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