Mali’s Minister of Health visits hospital in Mopti

The hospital in Mopti is one of five regional hospitals participating in a teleradiology project which connects rural hospitals in Mopti, Sikasso, Timbuctu and Kayes to ‘Point G’ - the academic hospital in Bamako via the Internet. This enables doctors and nurses working in the regional hospitals to draw on the expertise of medical specialists based in the capital. Specialists, such as radiologists, are often conspicuously absent from regional hospitals. To put the situation into sharp perspective, there are only 11 radiologists in the whole of Mali and most of them work at Point G, the academic hospital in Bamako. As a result, regional hospitals sometimes fail to interpret complicated x-rays and prescribe the right treatment. Sending people to the hospital in Bamako - forcing people to travel sometimes even up to 1,300 kilometres - is often the only thing provincial hospitals can do, if they can do anything at all. This not only aggravates the condition of the patients, but also adds extra costs that some people simply cannot afford.

Quicker diagnoses through teleradiology

In 2002, the Malian association of radiologists, the Société Malienne d’Imagerie Médicale (SOMIM) supported by IICD, took the initiative to set up an Internet connection between the Point G hospital in Bamako and three hospitals in the rural areas of Timbuktu, Mopti and Sikasso to experiment with teleradiology. The purpose of the teleradiology project was to provide a solution for the lack of trained radiologists in rural hospitals, by offering them the possibility to send or receive x-ray scans and diagnoses over the Internet. The project got off the ground in 2004. In 2006, the first evaluation proved that healthcare related to radiology in the areas of Mopti, Sikasso and Timbuctu had significantly improved. Patients received a quicker diagnosis and better medical treatment without having to travel unnecessarily to Bamako. At the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, the project was extended and took hospitals in Gao and Kayes on board. In the near future, if funding can be secured, hospitals in Kidal, Ségou and Koulikoro will be connected too.

The success of the teleradiology project has attracted the attention of donors and healthcare workers all over Africa and contributes to a growing interest in using ICT to improve healthcare. The Ministry of Health in Mali, which is already supporting different ICT for health initiatives, is particularly interested. That is why the Minister of Health, Mr Oumar Ibrahima Touré, recently paid a visit to the hospital in Mopti to see how a regional hospital benefits from the services offered by the teleradiology project.

For the hospital and the project team it was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of teleradiology. First, the Minister witnessed how x-ray’s were scanned in Mopti and then sent by email to the hospital in Bamako. To demonstrate how the whole process took place and how the medical expert in the hospital operated, a video connection was set up with the hospital in Bamako to enable the radiologist to explain ‘live’ how he deals with the x-ray he has just received. He not only made clear what he saw on the x-ray, the points that could be missed and things that definitely need not to be missed, but also commented on the quality of the x-ray and how this could be improved in future.

Ways to strengthen healthcare through ICT

After the explanation of the radiologist in Bamako, the doctors and technical staff from the hospital in Mopti questioned him about the technical and pathological side of this specific radiology. All this gave the Minister a very good impression of the added value of teleradiology for the hospital in Mopti: it not only helped the medical staff to set a better diagnosis, it also helped them to expand their medical and technical expertise. Minister Touré stated that the government has a great interest in teleradiology and will - in response to the concerns raised by the staff in Mopti regarding the quality and availability of medical equipment - look into how the use of information and communication technology within the health sector can be strengthened. A newly formed agency for ICT and health within the Ministry will help to shape this.