Rural Doctors in Mali Link up to Specialists Online

Health personnel in Mali, is poorly spread between the capital and the other regions and between urban and rural zones, according to the study of the Mali social and health development decennial plan from 1998 to 2008.  More than half of the socio-sanitary staff of Mali is concentrated in Bamako and University expertise is only available in Bamako.

For someone living in a rural area, this means that finding a specialist doctor is hard, and the time and effort needed to get a specialised consultation can even become a factor of dissuasion. The E-health Activities Reference Centre tries to change this by linking doctors and patients in remote areas with specialists in other parts of Mali and even abroad through the use of internet. Doctors and patients from remote areas can now more easily contact specialists for consultations on their cases.

Coordinate E-Health activities

General objective is to operationalise a National Reference Centre for Telemedicine and E-Health activities in Mali, to coordinate national E-Health activities on the technical and organisational level and to establish international relations. Another objective is to offer an expertise and exchange platform to all Health service related actors who want to experiment Telemedicine or other E-Health activities. 

Specific objectives are:

• Developing Telemedicine and other E-Health activities based upon the expertise acquired by the REIMICOM executing staff
• Setting up a real time control centre for E-Health activities at the level of the Bamako based hospital Mother- Child
• Developing action research on the most adapted tools for E-Health in the Malian context
• Testing, developing and  experimenting with software for Telemedicine and eHealth
• Developing and offer E-services related to Health emergencies via the Health portal for Mali
• Developing local content related to eHealth
• Sensitising Health authorities, Health staff and the wider public in Mali on the potential of eHealth for the Health system in Mali
• Promoting synergy between all existing Telemedicine and E-Health activities in Mali

Saving time and money for patients

Not only does this project increase the link between doctors, it also saves patients time and money. An example of that is the case of a young boy who lived up North, 800 km from Bamako. “Normally for a specialised consult, he had to travel these 800 kilometres to Bamako or even further to a hospital abroad. His parents had already prepared to travel to a European hospital,” says dr. Mahamoudane Niang, project coordinator of the CERTES project. “But now, by a special internet consultations program and the help of the E-health Activities Reference Centre’s experts in Bamako, other African countries and a hospital in France could provide consultations based on the information sent. This made it possible for the boy to stay in Mali.”

Scientific Research

In addition to being a facilitator that connects doctors and patients to specialist doctors, the E-health Activities Reference Centre also conducts scientific research for Telemedicine and Telemedicine innovation. The centre also serves as a training centre for medical students or any other health professional wanting to learn more about innovative health solutions.

Experiences so far

The project started in May 2008 and the centre is now up and running. Health professionals were trained and they in turn train others. Cases are forwarded to specialists on a regular basis. What still needs to be done is finding even more specialists so that the network can grow. This is a continuous process and is reached by continuously training experts in the use of online consultation tools.

Dr Mahamoudane Niang: “As a doctor I really like the system of sending medical files through the internet, the opportunity to talk to each other and comment through a special program. Before the use of this system, files were sent on paper and a general practitioner had very few possibilities to ask medical specialists any follow up questions. Now in the program, that is very easy.”