Family Health medical school introduces telemedicine

By George-Ramsey Benamba, GNA
Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - Family Health Group comprising the Premier Private Medical School, Family Health Hospital and Family Health Nursing School in collaboration with Apollo Hospital, India and Airtel Ghana have introduced telemedicine to provide clinical healthcare at a distance.

With this introduction, sick patients who may require a foreign to seek for medical care could be taken care of by resident doctors in the country with expert consultations from others outside their domain.

"All that you need to do is to book with Family Health Hospital by calling 0307086160 for a live medical consultation with world class doctors in India and USA."

Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, Minister of Education, who launched the facility commended the Professor Yao Kwawukume, President of the Group and the entire management of the Family Health for introducing such a useful facility to aid patients and medical students.

The telemedicine effort would among others enhance knowledge for their medical students, cut costs and hours of waiting for patients and open avenues to train their maintenance unit.

The Education Minister urged the Family Health Group to use the telemedicine to share knowledge and heal more patients in the country and beyond.

Professor Opoku Agyeman expressed the hope that Professor Kwawukume and his team would move forward with innovations in both content and methodology, adding, ''telemedicine expands the sharing of information towards improving healthcare delivery''.

She said information, communication and technology was an asset in everyday life adding that "it is a tool for learning, analysis, creation, maintenance and improvement".

She urged the management of Family Health Group to develop the needed communication skills that would effectively equip the students on their training programmes.

The Minister expressed her gratitude to Professor Yao Kwawukume for having plumbers, electricians, masons and carpenters on board by deciding to give them training through the telemedicine facility and hopefully pursue degree courses in a university.

"The relations between Family Health Medical School and Apollo Hospitals of India is also an example of south, south cooperation," she said.

Professor Yao Kwawukume said the telemedicine would enable Family Health Group to communicate effectively with their counterparts in Asia, particularly India, the University of Michigan and John Hopkins University in the USA and their counterparts in Britain and South Africa.

''We will in due course link up with our affiliate University, The University of Ghana, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Korle Bu,'' he said.

He said all their students would have complete access to the facility all day round and enhance the performance of lecturers as they use the facility to have continuous medical education with their counterparts in other areas of the world.

''Telemedicine will also be used to seek second opinion in the health sector so that in cases of doubtful diagnosis we can discuss our problems with the rest of the world especially our doctors in the diaspora who have already shown a lot of interest in joining us to teach our medical students'', he said.

He gave instances where, telemedicine was most favourable in the prisons many years ago when it was developed adding that "it allowed specialists to see inmate patients who were hardened criminals from a distance."

Professor Ernest Aryeetey, the Chairman for the occasion, said technology has made a big difference in education, pointing out that interactions between students and their lecturers today are far different from the past.

He commended Professor Kwawukume for his visionary leadership reaping the benefits of globalization.

GNA