Framework for rural cloud telemedicine development in sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

According to the United Nations estimate, about 50 percent of entire world population and close to 70 percent of that of developing countries are living in rural areas. Quite a significant number of these populations live in penury especially those in sub Saharan Africa countries. In comparison with urban populace, rural residents are faced with challenges of access to technologies, good roads, electricity, infrastructures, economic and social services. Researchers have identified telemedicine technology as a remedy for people in the remote areas who do not have access to effective medical care due to dearth of skilled medical practitioners who are mostly seen in the urban region. In this study, the authors highlighted how cloud computing can be used to meet the telemedicine requirements for rural healthcare development in sub Saharan African countries in terms of benefits and issues associated with implementation and proposed a public cloud based rural telemedicine framework that is cost effective, implementable, scalable and fault tolerant.