Telemedicine in sub-Saharan Africa : The case of teleophthalmology and eye care in Ethiopia

• The authors examine the need and adoption of teleophthalmology in sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia, like most sub-Saharan African countries, is faced with limited specialists and health care services. These services are often concentrated in the urban areas, leaving most of the rural population (about 70% of the country) without adequate and timely health care delivery. In Ethiopia, the ratio of ophthalmologists to the population is 1:1,200,000, resulting in inadequate delivery of ophthalmology-related health care services. Using both primary and secondary data collection approaches, the authors report the need for telemedicine as well as the adoption and application of teleophthalmology in Ethiopia. Further, they present Ethiopia's teleophthalmology network, integrated teleconsultation, and teleeducation services. The authors conclude by presenting this research as a starting point to investigate further teleophthalmology and other telemedicine services for Ethiopia and by extension, other developing countries. Therefore, they bring a much-underresearched region (sub-Saharan Africa) and a much-underresearched technology (telemedicine) to the forefront of information systems (IS) research. It is the authors' hope that colleagues in the field will be motivated to investigate this '' forgotten '' region of the world that is yet to reap the full potentials of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik -- Medicinsk laboratorie- och mätteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering -- Medical Laboratory and Measurements Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS

OPHTHALMOLOGY

BLINDNESS

VISION

Information technology

Informationsteknik

Medical engineering

Medicinsk teknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)