Recent Advances in Telepathology in the Developing World
Sani A. Abubakar · InTech eBooks · 2011
The main challenge in healthcare delivery for most developing countries has been how best to take medical services to the remotest locations, because the greatest population lives in rural areas, where socioeconomic conditions and the means of communication are quite rudimentary (International Network for Cancer Training and Research, 2005). Particularly, there is a general paucity of pathology services in the developing countries and so often the correct diagnosis, which is key to survival, is hard to come by. Even in those centers where pathology laboratories exist, these are often the least developed clinical specialty. Hospitals and clinics located in these regions are generally limited in the care they could provide by the lack of pathologists and many of these institutions do not have well equipped laboratories with adequate number of staffs. Additionally, in view of the considerable distances between some rural and referral centers in the developing countries, consultation with an expert pathologist is a rarity, time consuming and expensive. A wide range of factors have influenced the deployment and growth of pathology resources throughout the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, the shortage of medical staff in pathology laboratories is particularly severe. Except in a few cities, majority of specimens are not even sent for pathological examination. Delays and low quality of service makes the pathology tests of limited value to clinicians. General laboratory quality standards including quality control and quality assurance are non-existent or suboptimal (Malami & Iliyasu, 2008a) and the skill of the technicians is highly variable. Other pervasive problems for pathology laboratories in sub-Saharan Africa are related to limited opportunities for basic training in pathology and the lack of books, CDs and other educational materials for continuing improvement. The result is a lack of operational competency with little back-up (Ahmad, 2005; Ahmad, et al 2009). It is therefore apparent that, perhaps more than anywhere else, it is in these resource-constrained nations of Africa that the greatest unmet need for pathological services exists. It is crucial that innovative interventions address these needs to improve the quality of laboratory services. In the context of these considerations, therefore, it is quite fortuitous that the world has witnessed phenomenal advances in technology that incorporate new methods in communications and information technology into medical practice. This has virtually revolutionized the practice of pathology and helped to facilitate professional linkages and dissemination of cutting-age knowledge. These improvements in technology have largely solved the technical requirements for telepathology (Wells & Sowter, 2000). Consequently, there is a considerable literature on the