Telemedicine and mobile health with integrative medicine in developing countries

• Published in: Health policy and technology Vol. 3; no. 4; pp. 264 - 271
• Main Authors: Kamsu-Foguem, Bernard, Foguem, Clovis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2014
• Subjects: Collaborative knowledge building; Complementary healthcare; Human health and pathology; Integrated medicine; Life Sciences; Mobile health; Telemedicine; Complementary healthcare; Collaborative knowledge building; Telemedicine; Integrated medicine; Mobile health
• ISSN: 2211-8837; 2211-8845
• DOI: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2014.08.008

African Home-based Care (AHC) and African Traditional Medicine (ATM) provide a number of self-sustainable primary health care workers in a rural region with the appreciation of ancestral knowledge and its contextual management. Even though most urban residents are able to afford and use conventional medicine to large extent, the implementations of modern medicine in rural areas and in poor peri-urban areas are limited. Our proposal is on how telemedicine solutions could enhance AHC and ATM practices and facilitate simultaneous delivery of both modern and traditional healthcare with evident added value to the recipients. This is indeed a fresh angle, as information and communication technologies (ICTs) could play an important role in developing countries in the management of patients and enhance quality care for patients in particular and healthcare (both traditional and modern heath systems) in general. This delivers comprehensive insights concerning the implementation on telemedicine where integrative medicine and African traditional medicine is in the back seat. •Telemedicine reduces the need for patients to visit distant doctors and hospitals.•Mobile health tools are a source for health information and collaborative services.•Telemedicine create remote ways of linking rural patients with health care actors.•Telemedicine where integrative African traditional medicine (ATM) is in back seat.•Potential for telemedicine to bridge the gap between ATM and conventional medicine.