As pointed out by Professor Maurice Mars in his inaugural lecture on the 20 August 2003 at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, titled 'eHealth and the Digital Divide: An African Solution'.
Developing countries like Africa & South Asia and remote & extremely back ward areas of even developed countries , not only lack medical facilities they often lack the access and skills to use modern information technology as well.
Our resources are limited and troubles unlimited. Therefore, we need to tackle our hurdles very tactfully. We don't merely need a solution, we need 'the solution'. Now long procedures, big mega budget solutions involving complex technology and expensive equipment will only worsen our current conditions. But going for a cheap slack way outs, going round and round, is also not the answer.So if we merge some of our problems and try finding a single effective solution , we can solve many problems easily.
Following the same pattern, if we tie the two problems (digital divide + health care non provision) together , what we can apply for their elimination is called telehealth.
"Any fool can make a rule and any fool will mind it"
[Henry David Thoreau]
We need not to follow the developed nations exactly. Though they often set good examples, but it is according to their culture, economic conditions and best for their current situation. We should bear in mind that we are where they were atleast 10 years ago. So we can follow their steps towards progress but at least we can create our own cut down versions, the ones that suit our requirements, our culture and todays conditions.
Therefore, telehealth though is a good solution and using expensive equipments is good for providing health care and trainings etc but we also need to look at the project life time , expenses, and how to cover those expenses while living in our circumstances. As abroad they can charge for it , it is an extra service a medical institution can provide , but here its like an urgent need and there will be a huge difference in price and types of users , using such a solution. Like it is said "vision in mind , action in hands" we need to aim high but take a small solid & firm step at a time, meeting our goals in our way, otherwise we will be lost in the technology dunes.
