Going the Distance

　　As Africa and China continue to celebrate thethe jubilee cooperation in health, one South Africancompany, called Telemedicine Africa, is providing basichealthcare solutions to millions of Africans – remotely.

　　Telemedicine technology allows doctors to diagnosepatients using telecommunications, like webcamsand other Internet platforms, when they are separatedby distance. Using these advances, Telemedicine Africa,in partnership with China-based telemedicine giantSUNPA, has been able to provide interactive healthcare to a broad swath of the South African populace.

　　Telemedicine was founded in 2008,and operatesas a private company with a bare bones staff of 10permanent employees. It does its noble work underthe leadership of Dr. Lynette Molefi, a South Africanmedical doctor and the company’s managing director.She has been one of the few pioneers of telemedicinein South Africa, and the entire continent, withrepresentation at various levels of government andnon-governmental organizations.

　　Born to lead

　　Born in the suburb of Soweto, outside Johannesburg,Molefi grew up in Lesotho, where she completed herearly education. She earned a Bachelor of Sciencedegree at Roma University in Lesotho and went on tostudy at the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA),where she qualified as a medical doctor.

　　Molefi’s interest in telemedicine started whenshe attended a telecoms conference in 1998. Aftercompleting a telemedicine course in the U.S., shemoved into Telemedicine research for eight years, hopingto gain an edge in an industry that was then stillin its infancy. She went on to serve as director forTelemedicine Research at the Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC) of South Africa for seven years.

　　The telemedicine unit was established as ajoint project of the South African Departmentof Health and the MRC. Since its founding, theunit has gone a long way toward closing thegap in access to health services, whichhas roots in the country’s apartheid past.

　　With spending on health careaccountingfor a significant portion of rural budgets,telemedicine helps reduce these costs,as people in remote areas don’t haveto travel out of the community to see adoctor.

　　A medical miracle

　　Molefi said the business model for Telemedicine Africais two-fold. “You have a scarcity of health care professionalsin the rural areas and therefore we can offermedical services from a distance. This can be solelyin the public sector or a combination of the publicprivatepartnership with healthcare providers in theprivate sector. We provide a [medical] service to theunderserved rural population who would otherwisehave to travel long distances to get specialist care. Oneof the dermatology projects we did with the Universityof Cape Town Dermatology Department showed that85 percent of the [patient’s] images [sent via telecommunications]were adequate for diagnosis and wesaved 75 percent of unnecessary [medical] referrals,”she said.

　　Telemedicine Africa operates by first doing amedical needs assessment for an area and proposingprojects that will address the specific needs there.They then implement suitable medical solutions andprovide training and support, via various businessmodels. Some of these are led by the government,with Telemedicine Africa supplying the technicalequipment and training. The company then managesand operates the project. Another model issupplying a platform for telemedicine consultationsand providing the doctors and specialists toconsult with the referring sites. Payments forthese services vary. The client can pay onbehalf of their employees, the governmentcan pay on behalf of patients or the patientsthemselves can pay if it is a private clinicthat is electronically connected.

　　Of course, this being Africa, the work isnot without its challenges. “[Internet] Connectivity is a challenge on the continent and it is alsovery costly. The ‘change management’ aspect is also amajor challenge as we have to change doctors and patients’mindsets. The funding for the inception phaseof these projects has also been a major hassle as mostgovernments [in Africa] do not have eHealth policiesand such strategies therefore are not budgeted for,”said Molefi.

　　But there are also positive results coming fromtelemedicine. “We have implemented one of the onlyfunctional telemedicine projects in South Africa in theLimpopo Province. We are now implementing a virtualhospital concept in partnership with the IndustrialDevelopment Corp. (IDC) and Dimension Data. Thiscenter will be able to offer medical services, over adistance, to any site in the world, as long as it can beconnected to our virtual hospital,” said Molefi,who won an award for Best Technology forWomen in Business in 2011. For her efforts shehas also been nominated to be on the WHOglobal advisory eHealth committee.

　　Chinese connection

　　Telemedicine Africa has signed an exclusive distributionagreement with China-based SUNPAfor the supply of all its telemedicine productsin Africa, as well as technology transfer. SUNPA,established in 1998 and based in China’s YunnanProvince, has set up one of the biggest telemedicinenetworks in the world centered around Beijing,Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kunming. The networkscover more than 1,000 hospitals at different levelsthroughout China, using the servicesof more than 6,500 well-known medicalexperts and about 76,000 doctorsto provide quality medical services to apopulation of 520 million. SUNPA is nowan international group with total assets of$650 million.

　　“We have been working with SUNPA onresearch projects since 2003, as part ofthe South Africa-China science and technologybilateral agreement on technologytransfer,” said Molefi. “SUNPA has signedan exclusive distribution agreement withTelemedicine Africa for the supply of allSUNPA telemedicine products in Africa.

　　We have a solid partnership based on asolid research foundation and have developeda very good relationship with ourChinese partners based on trust and professionalism.The language barrier is still achallenge but we will overcome that.”

　　Telemedicine projects on the Africancontinent are still in their pilot phases,but Molefi said that they can attest to thefact that their project is fully functional.“SUNPA is the largest telemedicine companyin the world based on the number of telemedicineproducts they have developed and the number ofsites. Our China-Africa relationship is based on mutualrespect and we have a lot in common in our healthsystems. We therefore can share scarce resources,”she said.

　　Molefi is a pioneer in every sense of the word, witha profound belief that business must do good to dowell. And, in partnership with China, this is exactlywhat she and her team are achieving in providingmedical care over vast distances for those in need.

　　By Jo Kromberg