SA telehealth project voted tops
26 March 2004
A South African telehealth project, based in the Eastern Cape, has been named a finalist in the prestigious Stockholm Challenge, an awards programme for pioneering information technology projects worldwide.
The Tsilitwa telehealth project, an initiative of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), competed with close to 1 000 other projects from over 100 countries in six different categories: e-government, culture, health, education, e-business and environment. The Tsilitwa project is competing in the health category.
According to the CSIR's Johan Eksteen, the Stockholm Challenge was initiated in 1994 to help create an inclusive information society. "The focus is not on the technology itself, but on how information and communications technology (ICT) can benefit people and societies," Eksteen said.
"Our telehealth project is aimed at empowering rural communities by making it possible for clinic sisters to provide
improved health care", Eksteen said. "The CSIR's telehealth project connects the rural clinic of Tsilitwa by means of a wireless network to the Nessie Knight Hospital in Sulenkama.
"The clinic sister is thus able to interact with the doctor at the hospital through data, voice and video communications via a wireless system. This facilitates cost-effective healthcare for patients who would have had to travel long distances."
Many deep rural communities in South Africa do not have access to healthcare and ICT that are essential for local economic development. Community members travel long distances to rural clinics, often to be referred to a hospital many kilometres away.
According to the CSIR, an effective ICT infrastructure can empower clinic sisters to provide improved healthcare at a low cost to patients, while improving awareness of diseases such as HIV/Aids, TB and cholera.
The wireless technology developed by the CSIR is an effective solution for rural
connectivity in establishing a rural intranet. The 11 megabyte per second broadband wireless system enables data, voice and video communications.
The project aims to implement an alternative communications infrastructure in rural communities, independent of the national telecommunications network, in order to support improved healthcare and local economic development.
"Being a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge is a victory in itself", said Alfonso Molina, professor at the University of Edinburgh and chairman of the international jury that assessed the projects. "We found the CSIR's telehealth project to be very important to local progress, and so innovative that it should serve as a model for regions, cities and countries", he added.
In 2000, a CSIR project ended first in one of the categories of the Stockholm Challenge. The project was based on a completely wireless Internet connection for two schools in the remote KwaZulu-Natal region of Manguzi.
The
winners will be announced on 13 May at the Stockholm Challenge Final Events, a week-long programme of events that include networking activities, seminars, exhibitions and technical visits. Invited finalist projects will have the opportunity to interact with ICT entrepreneurs from all over the world who will showcase their best solutions.
Source: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
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