International Journal of Information Management 24 (2004) 221–234 An internet-based telemedicine system in Nigeria Olumide Sunday Adewale* ,1 Department of Computer Science, Federal university of Technology, PMB 704, Akure, Nigeria Abstract Telemedicine is a very exciting field worldwide. Nigeria has a population of more than 120 million people,amajorpercentageofwhichliveintheremoteruralareas,whereaswiththebest-equippedhospitals andscarcemedicalexpertsaredistributedintheurbancities.Thesepeoplelivinginremoteruralandpoorer areashavelimitedaccesstobasichealthcare.Geographicisolation,thescarcityofphysiciansandhospitals, and difficulties of travel to larger cities where such care is available are among the factors limiting this access. Governments at federal, state and local levels, have been making healthcare in these remote rural areas their focal point over the years so as to enable citizens in both rural and urban areas to have equal accesstomedicalservicesandclinicalhealthcaredespitethegeographicisolationbarriersbutthisefforthas only been partly successful. Therefore, establishment of an Internet-based telemedicine system would be most useful in achieving government’s aims of bringing useful healthcare to these remote rural and poorer areas. This among other things would improve the quality of healthcare in rural and outlying areas, lower costs of delivering healthcare and give remotely placed physicians the opportunity to consult over any patient’s case. In this paper, an Internet-based telemedicine environment is developed for Nigeria, specificallytosupportconsultationsamongremotelyplacedpatients,ruralhealthworkersandspecialistsin theurbancitiesandprovideasecureaccesstoremotepatientrecords.Thepaperfurtherdiscussessomeof the challenges and implementation issues of telemedicine in Nigeria. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Telemedicine; Telehomecare; Healthcare; Telecommunications 1. Introduction Telecommunication technologies are being used to change the healthcare industry in unprecedented and irreversible ways. These technologies are enabling delivery of healthcare to remotelyplacedpatientsandfacilitatinginformationexchangebetweengeneralistsandspecialists. ARTICLE IN PRESS *Tel.: +39-3387577362. E-mail address: adewale@sissa.it (O.S. Adewale). 1 Present address: International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA–ISAS), Via Beirut 2–4, 34014 Trieste, Italy. 0268-4012/$-see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2003.12.014