Computer-assisted medical diagnosis for rural Sub-Saharan Africa

There is a pressing need to employ information technology for rural healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda and Mozambique have one physician for every 25 000 people. It will not be feasible to meet the need for more physicians and professional nurses in a timely fashion through training or recruitment. Computerassisted diagnostic systems provide an opportunity to help meet the physician shortage in developing countries. A necessary concomitant action to deployment of such technology is the development of appropriate rural healthcare infrastructure. Promising strategies employing computer-assisted diagnostic software have been used successfully for more than seven years in rural India. Similar approaches present opportunities for exploration of new paradigms for rural healthcare delivery in rural Sub- Saharan Africa. © 2009 IEEE.