Rwanda’s ongoing program to interconnect the entire country through fiber and high-speed broadband will ease health-care service delivery, according to President Paul Kagame.
Addressing an e-health conference in Bellagio, Italy, Kagame said connecting rural areas will solve many of the heath challenges faced by the vast majority of Rwanda’s citizens.
“The increased bandwidth will allow us to send digital radiology images from district hospitals to experts in the capital, Kigali, and outside the country,” Kagame said. “Given that the overwhelming majority of our population lives in rural areas, this will allow many more patients to easily secure specialist opinion at significantly reduced cost.”
Regarding the treatment of HIV/AIDS, Kagame told the conference that the government is partnering with a U.S. firm to connect up to 178 sites caring for 55,000 patients that are on antiretroviral drugs.
As one of the greatest supporters of technology in Africa, Kagame was invited to address the conference, organized by the Rockefeller Foundation and dubbed “Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partnerships, Local Solutions.” Discussion at the conference has focused on ways to accelerate innovative applications of emerging digital technologies to improve the health of poor and vulnerable people around the world.
To prove its intention to leverage ICT use in service delivery, Rwanda has rolled out a fiber-optic backbone expected to be fully operational by the end of next year. The country has also launched broadband network coverage in Kigali, which will cover all other cities and towns within a year.
