S. Korea to launch telemedicine project in Rwanda

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The South Korean government, KT Corp. and Severance Hospital will team up to launch a telemedicine project in Rwanda, Africa, marking the first step of Korea’s global telemedicine project supported by government, business and hospital, an idea that has long been championed by the country’s President Park Geun-hye. The Rwanda project is also the first case where a local information communication technology (ICT) company joins.

According to sources on Monday, Korea’s health ministry and its counterpart in Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the establishment of a telemedicine system last June, and KT, Severance Hospital and Rwanda’s University Central Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) signed a follow-up MOU on 29 July. Korea has so far signed telemedicine MOUs with seven countries, but Rwanda was the first country where an ICT company in addition to hospitals agreed to participate in the establishment of a telemedicine system.

“Previous agreements focused on cooperation among hospitals, meaning they cannot guarantee the availability of wired and wireless communication lines, a key infrastructure for telemedicine. But with the participation of an ICT company this time, it will be possible to set up a true telemedicine system,” said a government official.

Source: Pulse News (link opens in a new window)

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