The emergence of telemedicine in a low-middle-income country: challenges and opportunities.
Open accessAbstract
The quality of cancer care delivery varies across different regions of Ghana, highlighting the need for improved access to quality healthcare services. Telemedicine has emerged as a promising solution to address this disparity, as it can reduce costs and improve access to healthcare services for cancer patients in remote areas. Despite the widely reported benefits of telemedicine, its adoption in low-resource settings has been slow due to several challenges. This study explores strategies for incorporating telemedicine into the current healthcare system in Ghana for the benefit of all patients especially those diagnosed with cancer. The study also highlights the current challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation and utilisation of telemedicine in Ghana. This research was a cross-sectional study conducted in Accra, Ghana that adopted a mixed-methods approach. Participants were selected through multi-stage probability sampling. Quantitative data were collected via a survey whereas qualitative data were obtained by means of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions among healthcare professionals, patients and key stakeholders in the telemedicine industry. The Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (version 21) was used to assemble, analyse and display the research data. The major challenges discussed centered on high initial investment costs, privacy and security concerns, poor internet connectivity, insufficient infrastructure and training of healthcare providers as well as the resistance to change among healthcare professionals. The study contributes to the understanding of telemedicine adoption in Ghana with findings underscoring the potential to address healthcare challenges while highlighting the need to overcome implementation obstacles. The study findings also provide valuable insights for policymakers, healthcare institutions and stakeholders to enhance telemedicine adoption in Ghana.
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?
The difference in impact between Rwanda and Pakistan likely stems from Rwanda's unique enabling environment: 75.4% insurance coverage through community-based schemes compared to Pakistan's 12% coverage, and mobile phone penetration of 83% versus 65%.
“This difference likely stems from Rwanda’s unique enabling environment: 75.4% insurance coverage through community-based schemes compared to Pakistan’s 12% coverage, and mobile phone penetration of 83% versus 65% [8, 28, 32–34].”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 1 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPakistan had 12% insurance coverage.
“compared to Pakistan’s 12% coverage”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
The Introduction discusses access to healthcare in Ghana, and the Results report responses to a telemedicine survey; neither gives an insurance-coverage figure for Pakistan. Searches for “Pakistan 12% insurance coverage” and “health insurance coverage Pakistan twelve percent” found no passage addressing the claim in our copy (page numbers unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.75)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRwanda had 75.4% insurance coverage through community-based schemes.
“75.4% insurance coverage through community-based schemes”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
The Introduction discusses Ghana’s community-based primary healthcare approach, and the Methods identify the study setting as Greater Accra, Ghana. Searches for Rwanda, 75.4%, and community-based health insurance found no passage reporting the claimed insurance coverage. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRwanda had mobile phone penetration of 83%.
“mobile phone penetration of 83%”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
The Challenges section discusses phone-service coverage and internet connectivity in Ghana, but gives no mobile-phone penetration figure for Rwanda. Searches for Rwanda and 83% found no passage supporting the claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPakistan had mobile phone penetration of 65%.
“versus 65%”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
The Introduction and Challenges sections discuss telecommunications and phone coverage in Ghana, but give no mobile-phone penetration figure for Pakistan. Searches for Pakistan, mobile-phone penetration, and 65% found no passage supporting the attributed figure. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Ghana's mobile health program ended with a six-month phase-out period and showed only 5% increases in facility visits.
“This pattern contrasts with gradual service transitions observed when Ghana’s mobile health program ended with six-month phase-out period, which showed only 5% increases in facility visits [34, 35].”
From Telemedicine implementation and healthcare utilization in Rwanda: interrupted time series of Babyl digital health services from 2015 to 2024 (2026) · cites this paper as [34]
The Methods and Results describe a cross-sectional study of telemedicine in Greater Accra, not an evaluation of a mobile-health program ending. Searches for a six-month phase-out and a 5% increase in facility visits found no passage addressing either claim in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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
Virtually perfect? Telemedicine for COVID-19
Hollander, J. E., & Carr, B. G. (2020) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmp2003539 · Cited by 2,970 · see citing works
Tuckson, R. V., Edmunds, M., & Hodgkins, M. L. (2017) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmsr1503323 · Cited by 907 · see citing works
Covid-19: a remote assessment in primary care
Greenhalgh, T., Koh, G. C. H., & Car, J. (2020) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.m1182 · Cited by 705 · see citing works
Telemedicine and the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lessons for the Future
Bashshur, R., Doarn, C. R., Frenk, J. M., Kvedar, J. C., & Woolliscroft, J. O. (2020) · Telemedicine and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2020.29040.rb · Cited by 642 · see citing works
The Empirical Foundations of Telemedicine Interventions in Primary Care
Bashshur, R. L., Howell, J. D., Krupinski, E. A., Harms, K. M., Bashshur, N., & Doarn, C. R. (2016) · Telemedicine and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2016.0045 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Recent directions in telemedicine: Review of trends in research and practice
Wilson, L. S., & Maeder, A. J. (2015) · Healthcare Informatics Research · doi:10.4258/hir.2015.21.4.213 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Smith, W. R., Atala, A., Terlecki, R. P., Kelly, E. E., & Matthews, C. A. (2020) · Journal of the American College of Surgeons · doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2020.04.030 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Current challenges in health information technology–related patient safety
Sittig, D. F., Wright, A. T., Coiera, E. W., Magrabi, F., Ratwani, R. M., Bates, D. W., & Singh, H. (2018) · Health Informatics Journal · doi:10.1177/1460458218814893 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Overcoming knowledge barriers to health care through continuous learning
Sánchez-Polo, M. T., Cegarra‐Navarro, J., Cillo, V., & Wensley, A. K. P. (2019) · Journal of Knowledge Management · doi:10.1108/jkm-10-2018-0636 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Using Simulation to Teach Telehealth Nursing Competencies
Smith, T. S., Watts, P. I., & Moss, J. A. (2018) · Journal of Nursing Education · doi:10.3928/01484834-20180921-10 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Cephalometric characteristics of nonobese patients with severe OSA.
Pae, E., & Ferguson, K. A. (1999) · PubMed · doi:10.1043/0003-3219(1999)069 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
An exploratory survey of the applications of telemedicine in Ghana
Darkwa, O. K. (2000) · Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare · doi:10.1258/1357633001935185 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- [7]Barr JR D’Auria D Persia F Telemedicine, homecare in the era of COVID-19 and beyond 2020 Third International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Industries (AI4I) 2020 IEEE 48 51
- [10]Akter SR Opportunities and challenges of telemedicine in remote communities: a systematic review J Telemed Telecare 2019 25 10 571 581
- [20]Adibi S Mobile Health: A Technology Road Map 2015 5 Berlin Springer
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Rubuga, F. K., Absolomon, G., Uhawenimana, T. C., Nsaba-Uwera, Y. D., Muhire, J., Hagenimana, J. D., Nyabyenda, E. C., Irakiza, P., Semakula, M., Remera, E., et al. (2026) · BMC Primary Care · doi:10.1186/s12875-026-03179-8 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“This difference likely stems from Rwanda’s unique enabling environment: 75.4% insurance coverage through community-based schemes compared to Pakistan’s 12% coverage, and mobile phone penetration of 83% versus 65% [8, 28, 32–34].”
Influential
- Authors
- Kyei, K. A., Onajah, G. N., & Daniels, J. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Ghana (GH)
- Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (GH)
- Venue
- PubMed Central
- Publisher
- National Institutes of Health
- Published
- 2024-01-01
- Volume
- 18
- Pages
- 1679-1679
- PMC
- PMC10984837
- OpenAlex
- W4394740607
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3
- FWCI
- 1.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advances in Oncology and Radiotherapy
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Keywords
- telemedicine, cancer care, low-middle income countries, Ghana, barriers to telehealth, internet access, data privacy and security, health infrastructure, health professions education, resistance to change, health care access, remote areas, healthcare policy
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
