Tele-Health Services in Developing Countries — Problems and Prospects: The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The state of tele-health services in a developing country like Nigeria has been investigated. The investigation revealed: (1) nascent tele-health services, due mainly to the poor state of telecommunications facilities and services, resulting mainly from the dearth of funds, expertise, and the lack of enabling socio-political, economic and regulatory environments, (2) that, with these problems solved, tele-health services have bright prospects, viz.: (i) in the context of the New National Health programme, which lays emphasis on primary health care, health education and disease prevention; training medical and health personnel; remote consultation and diagnosis, and thus (ii) as a cost-effective health care delivery strategy in the 21st century, and (iii) in promoting tourism. Solutions proffered include the provision of adequate rural telecomunications facilities and services, and wide-spread, cost effective uses of informration technology, particularly networking and cormunications within the country, andaccess to the Internet.