Expanding teledermatology in Africa
12/21/2017
Following the call for project proposals announced during the “Premières Assises de Télédermatologie Africaines” (First African Teledermatology Conference) in June 2017, the Fondation Pierre Fabre will develop two new national teledermatology programmes, in Mauritania and Togo, in partnership with public health structures and dermatologists.
In the Global South, skin disease is one of the principal motives for medical visits at primary healthcare centres. The minimal availability of dermatological care (with coverage of sometimes less than one dermatologist per million inhabitants) does not ensure suitable patient care, which can lead to severe complications.
Teledermatology was created to improve the diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases. Healthcare centre physicians and nurses are trained to recognise and treat common dermatoses, those that do not require a dermatologist’s opinion. When confronted with complex cases, they can now use digital tools (computer and camera) and a secure platform to send patient data to dermatologists, who respond remotely with a diagnosis.
Mali: on the leading edge of teledermatology
On 17 June 2017, in Bamako (Mali), the Centre National d’Appui à la lutte contre la Maladie (CNAM), the Bamako Faculty of Medicine and Odontostomatology and the Fondation Pierre Fabre held the “Premières Assises de Télédermatologie Africaines” (First African Teledermatology Conference) (Lien). The event brought together dermatologists and representatives of a variety of healthcare entities from eight of the sub-region’s countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry, Mauritania, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire) and was attended by Mali’s Minister of Health and Public Hygiene.
The objective of this conference was to present the results of the pilot programme, called Teledermali (lien programme), overseen by Professor Ousmane Faye in Mali and supported by the Fondation Pierre Fabre. This project laid the foundations for a treatment model by training doctors and nurses in remote areas in two skillsets: better identification of common dermatoses to ensure better diagnoses, and proficiency in using digital tools to photograph and send information on complex cases to experts for assessment. As the programme had very positive results, the Fondation Pierre Fabre decided to extend this model to other countries in the sub-region.
Watch the full AFP report about the teledermatology programme in Mali.
Extending the model to Mauritania and Togo
During this First African Teledermatology Conference, the Fondation Pierre Fabre put out a sub-regional call for project proposals on using new technologies to improve diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases in Africa.
After examining the proposals received, the Foundation selected two projects to support, one proposed by the Société Mauritanienne de Dermatologie (Mauritanian Dermatology Society – SMD) and the other by the Société Togolaise de Dermatologie et des infections sexuellement transmissibles (Togolese Society of Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Infections -SOTODERM).
Mauritania – Treating skin disease, even in the desert.
With only 13 dermatologists (12 of whom are in the capital) for a population of four million people spread over this vast, desert-covered territory, quality healthcare options are very limited. The selected project plans to create twelve consultation units, based on existing departmental or community health structures, over a two-year period across three regions in North and South Mauritania.
The local referring healthcare workers at these centres will be in contact with the eight expert dermatologists based in Nouakchott using the computer network of the Programme National de Télémédecine. A diagnosis and treatment protocol will be returned by the dermatologist involved in 24-48 hours. The long-term objective is to train 24 referring healthcare workers who can handle 300 patients a month (3,600/year) across the three target regions.
This project is sponsored by the Société Mauritanienne de Dermatologie.
Togo – Train 100 healthcare workers in five years.
To improve dermatological expertise among healthcare workers in four of Togo’s five regions, the Société Togolaise de Dermatologie et des infections sexuellement transmissibles (SOTODERME) plans to train 100 healthcare workers at 50 care facilities.
It will be possible to receive diagnoses on complex cases by way of remote data transmission to expert dermatologists based in Lomé. This project, which will take five years to implement, replicates the Malian teledermatology model established by Professor Faye and will rely on the Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine (RAFT).
