BOGOU

Making specialised health services available to isolated populations without patients having to travel

Project start date : 01/09/2007

Last updated : 16/03/2022

Beneficiary country : Mali Senegal Ivory Coast Madagascar

Healthcare themes targeted

  • Mother and child health
  • Primary healthcare
  • Malaria/paludism
  • Infectious diseases
  • Sexual and reproductive health
  • Cardiovascular illnesses
  • Dermatology
  • Mental health
  • Ophthalmology
  • Emergency services

Fields of application

  • Telemedicine (remote diagnosis and consultations)
  • Patient monitoring and medical data

Stage of development

  • Routine project/operational

Financing method

  • Public (grant/subsidies, call for proposals/call for tender, etc.)
  • Private (private investors, crowdfunding, philanthropy, etc.)

Area where the project is utilised

  • International (in several countries)

Economic model(s)

Target audience

  • Healthcare professionals and structures (hospitals, healthcare centres/clinics, health networks)
  • Sick people

Project objectives

  • Decreased mortality
  • Decreased morbidity
  • Reduced suffering
  • Improved treatment

Materials used

  • Smartphone
  • Tablet
  • Computer

Technologies used

  • Internet
  • Mobile app (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, HTML5, etc.)

Offline use

Yes

Open source

Yes

Open data

No

Independent evaluation

No

About the sponsor

Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine ( RAFT)

The world’s largest medical deserts are Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia: the World Health Organization estimates that two million healthcare professionals are required there to be able to develop functional healthcare systems. Looking more closely, doctors are concentrated in the capitals of these countries, even when they may not have enough work, and wish to emigrate to the North rather than setting up their services in rural areas. Consequently, the patients need to head for the big cities, when they are able to, taking roads that are often long and challenging.In 2000, a group of young doctors in Mali who were prepared to go to rural areas, set us a challenge: use your digital tools to support doctors who want to set up their practices, so that they can remain in contact with specialist doctors and their colleagues, to continue receiving training and advice when they encounter a difficult case, to decide if a patient really does need to be transported to the city. Help us to move our expertise, rather than moving patients or doctors. After pilot projects in Mali and Mauritania, the Francophone African Network for Telemedicine (RAFT) began in 2003. The name is evocative of a rather basic undertaking, but one that enabled us to overcome an obstacle, to reach another horizon. And this is the chosen approach: using simple, resilient computer tools that are adapted to local conditions to facilitate communication, collaboration and distance learning, to “de-isolate” health professionals and improve their working conditions and their effectiveness, and as a result, the quality of patient care. Up to 2014, more than 1,000 professionals had participated in RAFT in some 20 African countries: continuing education courses, help with remotely interpreting an X-ray, an ultrasound image, an electrocardiogram, a photo of a skin lesion, or to obtain advice for handling a difficult case.

Sector : Healthcare (professionals and structures)

Country of origin : Switzerland

Contact : Sponsor website Project website

Partners

  • Université de Genève

    Academic entities (Universities, research laboratories, etc)

  • Canton de Genève

    Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

  • RFI

    Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)