Africa should embrace Telemedicine practice

Kumasi, July 21, GNA - Dr Owusu Achaw Duah, a Medical Consultant, has urged African nations to give priority attention to the promotion of telemedicine practice to raise the quality of health care delivery on the continent.

He said in a continent where majority of the population lacked access to quality healthcare services, telemedicine offered a better option to bring comprehensive healthcare to the people, using information technology (IT).

Telemedicine is a concept where rural and deprived health centres are linked up to state-of-the-art health facilities in urban areas or a given area to enable medical personnel to diagnose and treat patients through the internet or any IT means.

Dr Duah was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Amoawi in the Offinso Municipality, after he led a team of medical personnel from the Weber State University, United States (US), to undertake a free health care screening for more than 200 people, at the Offinso Community Clinic and Maternity.

They were screened for hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell and eye diseases.

The team gave out free drugs and medicated spectacles to the patients.

Dr Duah, who is the Founder and Director of Martin Luther King Clinic and College at Odorkor in Accra, said the team would also give health lectures to students of the College and the Aninwaah Medical Centre in Kumasi.

This is to help build their capacity in the areas of nursing, laboratory technology and the use of IT in health administration.

He appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority to give accreditation to the Offinso Community Clinic and Maternity to enable more people in the area to have access to quality healthcare.

Professor Lisa Trujillo, a Lecturer of Respiratory Therapy of the Weber State University, said her team would continue to be associated with efforts at bringing quality healthcare to the people, especially in under-served communities.

Mrs Beatrice Sampong, Matron of the Clinic, advised the people to adopt healthy life styles to avoid diseases.