A new telemedicine center opened last month in Lagos, Nigeria with the purpose of providing healthcare to local Nigerians. Designated as the Glo-Telemedicine Center, located on Victoria Island in Lagos, this center is a product of the collaboration between Nigeria’s Global Resources and Projects and healthcare providers in India, U.S., Egypt and other countries.

The center is designed to minimize transportation concerns for Nigerians, especially those in isolated areas, to bring them expert healthcare from abroad. According to the executive officer of Global Resources Dr. Wale Alabi, “the Glo-Telemedicine Centre would bridge the gap between the poor and good health services by creating a simless [sic: seamless] communication between them and those with the expertise and facilities to help them.”

Dr. Alabi cited the high prevalence of Nigerians using life savings, and even taking out crippling loans to travel to foreign countries seeking expert healthcare. Dr. Alabi also claimed that over 60% of those who go abroad for services can get those same services in Nigeria, but often go abroad due to incorrect diagnoses.

The center will be used as a medical tool to reduce medical costs and substantially increase range of access to patients. The center is designed to offer specialty treatments to Nigerians at a low cost. It will also offer Continuing Medical Education to health professionals as a means to keep them informed of latest trends in health services.

The center’s capabilities are dependent on broadband fiber optics supplied by a Nigerian Telecommunication firm called Globacom. Their services take advantage of advances in ICT to transmit text, sound, video, image and other information from one location to another location.

Telemedicine is an application of medicine that takes advantage of electronic communications to transfer information from one location to another, often between health provider and patient, or between two health providers. Dr. Alabi noted that the success of telemedicine in African countries such as Kenya and Ghana is “transforming those countries.”

Similarly, Dr Alabi hopes the center will ultimately transform the way Nigerians think about accessing healthcare. However, this is not the first telemedicine project in Nigeria. Several years ago, the Nigerian government through the ministries of science and technology and health, commissioned a pilot telemedicine project that used satellite-based technologies. That project, called the NigComSat-1 Telemedicine pilot, was labeled impractical due to high costs and inapplicability. The Glo-Telemedicine center however, took note and addressed those issues, which is why it is now fully operational to Nigerians.