Health capacity development through telemedicine in Africa
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to identify and report the issues facing human capacity development through the use of telemedicine in Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: Data were obtained through literature review and personal observation. RESULTS: Sub-Saharan Africa has a great burden of disease and an extreme shortage of health workers. Its countries are poor and the majority of its population rural. Telemedicine for clinical practice and education of health workers is seen as a possible means of addressing some of the health problems of Africa. A number of factors have been identified that impede the use of telemedicine in sub-Saharan Africa. These include, poverty, shortage of human resources, very limited existing infrastructure, lack of connectivity, high connectivity costs, lack of capacity development and policy issues. Examples of successful use of telemedicine and tele-educational programmes in Africa to develop capacity in health are given. CONCLUSIONS: Initiatives to develop capacity through tele-education appear to have been well received and are more successful than clinical telemedicine. There is need to raise awareness of telemedicine if it is to assist in developing ehealth capacity in Africa.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Lack of initial-buy in from clinicians was a major barrier in Mali, Ghana, and Nigeria.
“We further identified the lack of initial-buy in from clinicians as a major barrier in countries such as Mali, Ghana, and Nigeria (Kissi et al., 2019; Mars, 2010).”
From Telemedicine use in Sub-Saharan Africa: Barriers and policy recommendations for Covid-19 and beyond (2021) · cites this paper as Mars, 2010
The “Mali IKON Project” section says lack of initial clinician buy-in made implementation difficult at regional hospitals in Mali. The “Pan African e-Network” section mentions sites in Ghana and Nigeria but does not identify clinician buy-in as a barrier in either country. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn ECOWAS, the primary financial barrier to telemedicine is the cost of telemedicine and ICT infrastructure.
“The review showed that the primary financial barrier across all the countries in this region was linked to the cost of telemedicine and ICT infrastructure (Frimpong et al., 2017; Mars, 2010) and the cost of maintenance of the technology (Nyame-Asiamah, 2019).”
From Telemedicine use in Sub-Saharan Africa: Barriers and policy recommendations for Covid-19 and beyond (2021) · cites this paper as Mars, 2010
The ICT Provision section says telemedicine and connectivity are expensive in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Conclusions identify high cost and limited telecommunications infrastructure as barriers. The paper does not establish that infrastructure cost is the primary financial barrier in every ECOWAS country; its discussion is framed around sub-Saharan Africa more broadly. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The World Health report 2006 1 : Working together for health 2
Guilbert, J.-J. (2006) · Education for Health · doi:10.1080/13576280600937911 · Cited by 2,657 · see citing works
(2016) · Human Rights Documents online · doi:10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9841-2014001 · Cited by 1,579 · see citing works
(2024) · Climate Change and Law Collection · doi:10.1163/9789004322714_cclc_2023-0172-0836 · Cited by 1,138 · see citing works
Collier, P. (2007) · Cited by 608 · see citing works
Suwahyono, U. (2009) · Cited by 348 · see citing works
Telemedicine support for the developing world
Wootton, R. (2008) · Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare · doi:10.1258/jtt.2008.003001 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Global E-Health Policy: A Work In Progress
Mars, M., & Scott, R. E. (2010) · Health Affairs · doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0945 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Self-citationTeledermatology reduces the number of patient referrals to a dermatologist
Knol, A., van den Akker, T. W., Damstra, R. J., & de Haan, J. (2006) · Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare · doi:10.1258/135763306776084365 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Transforming Systems of Care for Children in the Global Community
Alverson, D. C., Swinfen, L. R., Swinfen, L. P., et al. (2009) · Pediatric Annals · doi:10.3928/00904481-20090918-11 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- World Health Organization. World health report 2006: working together for health. Geneva: WHO Press; 2006.
- Building foundations for eHealth. Report of the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth. Geneva: WHO Press; 2006.
- World Health Organization. World health statistics 2009. Geneva: WHO Press; 2009.
- Mars M, Scott RE. Teleconsultation usage is limited. Telemed eHealth 2009;15:S46.
- Tanzanian health workshop triggers discussion on challenge and solutions for e-health initiatives. h t t p : / / w w w. i m p a c t a l l i a e . o rg / ev 0 2 . php?ID=48486_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC (Accessed 23 December 2009).
- Mars M. Tele-education in an African country. Global telemedicine and ehealth updates 2009;2:332-6.
- Mars M. The development of an international telemedicine training programme. Telemedicine and eHealth Journal 2008;14:S40.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Granja, C., Janssen, W., & Johansen, M. A. (2018) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/10235 · Cited by 578 · see citing works
“Multimedia Appendix 1 [19-239] presents the outcomes.”
Telemedicine use in Sub-Saharan Africa: Barriers and policy recommendations for Covid-19 and beyond
Dodoo, J. E., Al-Samarraie, H., & Alzahrani, A. I. (2021) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104467 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
“In addition, clinicians in Nigeria viewed the use of telemedicine system as an additional workload which does not add any added incentives to motivate them [42].”
BackgroundInfluentialThe development of telemedicine programs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress and associated challenges
Dodoo, J. E., Al-Samarraie, H., & Alsswey, A. (2022) · Health and Technology · doi:10.1007/s12553-021-00626-7 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Armstrong, K., Liu, F., Seymour, A., Mazhani, L., Littman-Quinn, R., Fontelo, P., & Kovarik, C. (2012) · Telemedicine and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2011.0014 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Delaigue, S., Morand, J.-J., Olson, D., Wootton, R., & Bonnardot, L. (2014) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2014.00233 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Bagayoko, C.-O., Gagnon, M.-P., Traoré, D., Anne, A., Traoré, A. K., & Geissbuhler, A. (2014) · BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making · doi:10.1186/s12911-014-0120-8 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Tele-education in South Africa
Mars, M. (2014) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2014.00173 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Mars, M.
- Affiliations
- University of KwaZulu-Natal (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Mars, M.
- ORCID
- Mars, M.
- Venue
- Yearbook of Medical Informatics
- Publisher
- Georg Thieme Verlag KG
- Published
- 2010-08
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 01
- Pages
- 87-93
- ISSN
- 0943-4747 (ISSN-L)
- 2364-0502
- OpenAlex
- W2209539038
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Yearbook of Medical Informatics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Surgery
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Keywords
- telemedicine, distance education, health workforce shortage, sub-Saharan Africa, e-health, rural health, health infrastructure, internet access, health policy
- MeSH terms
- Health Workforce, Humans, Medical Informatics, Telemedicine, Africa South of the Sahara, Capacity Building
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
