Project Description
The project involves linking the Tygerberg Hospital to rural hospitals in order to improve healthcare in villages.

Project Objectives
This project aims to improve rural healthcare facilities using ICT. It connects doctors in the Tygerberg hospital to patients in distant rural areas. The patients can e-mail their queries to specialists and through the use of digital cameras and other technologies, get an online diagnosis.

Intended Beneficiaries
The Tygerberg project targets the poor who do not have enough resources to make repeated visits to the hospitals.

Partners Involved
Financed by the donations from the Rotary Club, the project was implemented by specialists from the pediatric unit of Tygerberg.

Impact: Costs and Benefits
The Tygerberg project is more affordable than Telemedicine models used elsewhere. Patients can address their queries to specialists. They can now get treatment nearer to home from well-qualified doctors.

Lessons Learned
Through the implementation of this project it was learnt that prior consultation with stakeholders is extremely important. In fact some stakeholders felt threatened by the introduction of this new technology. After seeing its benefits however they adapted willingly. A number of technical problems still need to be looked into.

Constraints/Challenges
Lack of doctor training, especially those who are unfamiliar with computer technology, has been a major hurdle. The installation of connection points at hospitals has proved to be another challenge. Continued support of trained staff is also a mammoth task as the Tygerberg centre is very far from the other local centres.

Sustainability Factors
Hospitals, which are not connected to the provincial network, require patients to pay a fee. The project's long term sustainability, however, depends on donations from the rotary club. The South African Government's support is still uncertain.

Recommendations
The user interface needs to be simplified and the issue of information security needs to be dealt with.

Further Information

http://www.bridges.org/iicd_casestudies/tygerberg_telemedicine/index.html