Prof. Nicholas Etebu, Vice-Chancellor, Bayelsa Medical University, says telemedicine has the potential to confront global health issues.

Speaking at an African telemedicine seminar on Friday in Yenagoa, Prof. Etebu said telemedicine could help to address contemporary global health challenges.

According to him, telemedicine is cheap and also an effective way of ensuring that medication gets to the rural areas in Africa.

He said that telemedicine should be used to support patients in need, to support managers to improve healthcare delivery and to help the population in general.

In his opening remarks, Chief Medical Director at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Dr Dennis Allagoa, said the seminar would help medical and health care professionals, government officials, and academia, to better understand telemedicine.

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He noted that population explosion, epidemics, pandemics, poverty, insecurity, conflicts and many other factors contributed to making access to quality healthcare extremely difficult in most African communities.

According to him, telemedicine must find suitable approaches and methods that are effective and suitable for unique environments and situations.

“It has become even more auspicious for African countries in the COVID-19 era to take advantage of the benefits of telemedicine and take every action necessary to domicile it.

“It is our goal to drive the integration of telemedicine in our hospital and beyond.

“Telemedicine in particular is not new; it was first introduced to FMC Yenagoa in 2007 when equipment were first installed in readiness for a pilot scheme that formally began in January 2008,’’ he said.

The equipment, he explained, were installed under a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Space Research and Development Agency and the Federal Ministry of Health.

He said that selected Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres were also included in the collaboration.

In his presentation, via zoom, Medical Director Emeritus at Global Offsite Care, California U.S.A., Prof. Jame Gude, said telemedicine was an acceptable practice worldwide, irrespective of colour or race.

The theme of the seminar is: “Telemedicine Techniques and Integration in Medical Practice’’.