PAN- African e-health programme at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, will now make telemedicine in Africa not only broaden the scope of health services in the continent, but also give specialised care at the doorstep of the common man.
As a result of the commencement of this programme in UCH, African countries requiring information on medicine or expert management would be able to link to the hospital if they have a problem that they cannot solve on their own. UCH would connect 53 nations by satellite and fiber-optic network. The network primarily set up to provide tele-education, telemedicine, video conferencing and support e-governance and e-commerce, would also come very useful on issues of disaster management.
The PAN-African e-health programme is solely sponsored by the Indian government to assist the Nigerian government in delivery of health care to its citizens by providing access to medical information through teleconferencing. The project being done in phases, has cost Indian government $100 million and in future would be supported by the Indian government for a period of five years.
