An e-health needs assessment of medical residents in Cameroon.
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Date
2005-12-26
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Abstract
Medical residents from Yaounde I University in Cameroon are required to spend periods of time in rural or remote locations to complete their training To determine if e health might lessen their isolation and enhance patient care a needs assessment of the residents was performed using a brief questionnaire five items about the situation in which residents found themselves outside their medical school environment We gave the questionnaires to 45 residents Seventeen questionnaires had been returned at the time of the site visit a response rate of 38 Most residents indicated that the ability to contact a mentor would have either made them feel more confident 16 or 94 or altered their handling of recent cases 15 or 88 All residents had access to a mobile phone and many 11 or 65 had used it to contact a medical colleague for guidance A low cost and technologically simple telemedicine solution that maximized use of mobile phone capability provided access to medical and health care information and permitted exchange of images would be an appropriate response to the identified needs
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Keywords
Facility-based health worker, Access to information or data, Quality of care, Geographic inaccessibility, Feasibility, Provider training and education, Workforce development and performance support, Provider-to-provider communication