Telemedicine as a tool for digital medical education: a 15-year journey inside the RAFT network.

Abstract

This paper presents the evolution and growth of continuous medical education through the Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine (RAFT) network. RAFT is a telemedicine network present on four continents and built through years of experience, with the goal of supporting isolated healthcare professionals by providing them with the right expertise at the right time using affordable, low-bandwidth technologies. Much more than a platform to share and exchange knowledge, RAFT has put in place a solid local infrastructure to ensure the sustainability and maintenance of the network. From experience gained with South-South collaboration to top-down and bottom-up approaches and various certification models, much know-how has been acquired and different perspectives for improvement have been proposed. The results we have collected from these 15 years of practice are presented in this paper through lessons learned and key takeaways. Perspectives for future development supported by concrete examples conclude the paper.