Supporting vital healthcare in rural Niger
Professor Ibrahim Ali Touré
Professor, Chairman of Department and cardiologist at the Niamey Hospital
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young boy went to the health clinic in his village in rural Niger. His parents thought that his hands needed to be amputated; they were sure that the rash developing on his hands was leprosy and they didn’t want it to spread any further.
The young nurse could not make a diagnosis. So, she took a photo of the boy’s hands using her digital tablet, recorded all of her clinical findings and sent it to a dermatologist in the capital city, Niamey, to review.
His diagnosis was almost immediate: it was a skin condition that could be easily treated with widely available medication. Within a matter of days, the rash was gone, and the boy’s hands were saved.
A few months earlier, it might have been a different story.
Digital is a necessity
80 per cent of Niger’s population lives in one of the country’s 2,125 villages, many of which are far from main cities.
This can have a significant impact on people’s access to healthcare – and this is why telemedicine is essential, says Professor Ibrahim Ali Touré, Professor, Chairman of Department and cardiologist at the Niamey Hospital.
“I think this is a good example of how telemedicine can really support the medical system – the doctors and the patients – and the whole population in our underdeveloped country, in which we do have not enough doctors and enough medical facilities,” says Professor Touré.
Connectivity: a critical challenge
But telemedicine requires more than medical staff.
“The big challenge is to have a good Internet connection, and to have Internet devices like smartphones, as well as telemedicine support like the software and the tablets and computers, to help medical and health professionals to do their job in their rural area,” said Professor Touré.
“The real problem that we are facing – the problem of connectivity – is not very easy. Connectivity is not available everywhere.”
That is why the government of the Republic of Niger alongside several international partners, launched the Smart Villages initiative in 2019. It aims to improve people’s access to education, employment and medical care in rural areas in Niger through technology.
According to ITU data, in 2021, while 92 per cent of the population was covered by a 2G network, only 24 per cent had access to a 3G network.
To ensure that medical facilities in rural areas across the country have access to the necessary Internet connectivity, ANSI with support from ITU and the Smart Villages partners, is working to connect all villages in Niger — which is one of the core objectives of the Smart Villages initiative.
The initiative also involves training of rural medical staff so that they can learn to use these technologies. Medical practitioners in rural areas were provided with digital tablets which were loaded with applications and programmes.
Smart Villages was piloted in two rural villages, Sadore and Borgo Darey, both of which lie around 45km from Niger’s capital city, Niamey, focusing on supporting healthcare workers with early childhood illness diagnostics and dermatology. Medical staff were trained on how to record their clinical findings and send them to doctors in Niamey who can then provide clinical support to the rural communities.
E-dermato, the app that the nurse used to help save the young boy’s hands from amputation, was one of those tools.
But it is just one example of telemedicine’s life changing impact in rural Niger; Professor Touré recalled the case of one patient living 1,480km from the capital city hospital with high blood pressure and at high risk of heart failure.
“It was hard for the patient to face the distance by road; it takes one day and a half to travel,” said Professor Touré. Instead, the patient went to his local medical office where the doctor did an echocardiogram (EKG) and an echography and sent the images to Professor Touré who was able to give a diagnosis and prescribe treatment, without the patient needing to travel to the hospital in the capital city.
“He is very happy that now he doesn’t have to come to the city hospital every three months, thanks to this solution!” said Professor Touré.
Enthusiasm for Smart Villages
For Professor Touré, the Smart Villages initiative’s success lies in its simplicity: “Rural patients can directly explain their medical problems, and rural doctors can benefit from the advice of medical colleagues in the city,” says Professor Touré.
And it is having an impact.
“The population thinks that health workers are better equipped and can serve them better with these technologies,” said Hani Eskandar, ITU’s Senior Coordinator for Digital Services. “In fact, one nurse told me that she once forgot her digital tablet at home and her patients were asking about it.”
Niger – a blueprint for the world
“We hope that this is the beginning of a long journey – a good journey. In the coming years, we can increase the level of health, food and education in the country,” said Professor Touré.
That is because telemedicine saves time and money for the patient and can help doctors reach a quick diagnosis, he said.
The Niger Smart Villages pilot phase successfully concluded earlier this year, and now the approach has been developed as a blueprint, and has been launched in other countries such as Pakistan and Liberia.