TELEMEDICINE: THE GAME CHANGER IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

Solomon C. Nwaneri, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: snwaneri@unilag.edu.ng

One of the direct benefits of the Internet is its ability to remotely link people across the globe seamlessly bridging geographical barriers. The healthcare sector has immensely benefited from the transformative power of the internet through the innovations in telemedicine. Telemedicine is the provision of medical services across a long distance. Telemedicine makes it possible for accurate diagnosis of the health condition of a person even if there is no qualified medical expert around him or her. Of course, this is generally believed to bring about a number of benefits such as increased access to healthcare services, a reduction in costs and even a decline in mortality rates. 

There has been a considerable rise in the use of telemedicine services across the world after the devastating effects of COVID-19 pandemic. The US telemedicine market size is projected to reach a whopping 25.88 billion USD according to Polaris Market Research. Developing countries like Nigeria who obviously need to make huge investments in telemedicine especially due to the huge human and infrastructural deficits in those countries. Primary, secondary and tertiary medical facilities need to be fully equipped with telemedicine facilities.  . 

There is no need for overcrowding in secondary and tertiary public hospitals in most developing countries  if telemedicine services are massively embraced. Of course, the cost of telemedicine implementation could be huge, the expected benefits will far outweigh whatever financial investments that this will cost as more lives will be saved with expected improvement in the quality of life 



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