PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER Abstract—The Open Window to Senegal is born as a continuation of the Eye-Health project, carried out in the High Pyrenees region, north-east Catalonia, Spain. Eye-Health dealt with the difficulties entailed to life in isolated and poorly populated villages, where no hospitals or specialized doctors are placed. Open Window to Senegal’s main goal is to make specialized eye health available in the region of Kolda, using a telemedicine system designed specifically to improve ophthalmologic medical care. This consists of a cooperation between the family doctors of every village with specialized ophthalmologists of the main hospitals of the regions nearby. In the particular case of Senegal, this project is especially important as the country’s medical resources are limited, and need to be optimized in order to reach the biggest part of the population, mainly those who are far away from resourceful hospitals. The authors hope this is a first step in a series of assistance projects that will help improve and optimize health care in regions of the world where inhabitants still can’t reach a sufficient welfare. Index Terms— Tele-ophthalmology, telemedicine, healthcare I. INTRODUCTION enegal and Catalonia have different health needs situations and also different health care service. But, in some special cases, the same health systems solutions can be applied. S The Catalan health system is a publicly-funded system with comprehensive coverage and which all the citizens of Catalonia are able to access. During the 80’s and 90’s the middle-high urban classes contracted a private health insurance in order to avoid waiting lists. Therefore, the Catalan health system is co-paid between public and private founds. The Senegal health system is guaranteed in its constitution as a right of every citizen and the duty of the state to provide. The medical and health systems are inherited from French  colonization. Senegal was the place chosen to settle High Commissioner that will coordinate the Governors inside the AOF, Afrique Occidental Française. One third of the population is covered total or partial insurance health coverage, and the other two thirds of the population are financing their health fees through their own or indirect supports, [1]. In Catalonia, the physical inactivity inherited from an urban sedentary lifestyle, in combination with the progressive population ageing, treatment of chronic diseases and the rise on immigration levels has put the health system under stress conditions. The health resources management, in terms of hospital placements and professionals, was designed and works as a response to manifestation of diseases in an acute state. This system behavior implies a long and expensive treatment that makes it unsustainable and favors the introduction of e-health systems as a cost-effective solution. Located in the north-east of Catalonia, the ILO Lleida Ophthalmologic Institute detected unattended ophthalmologic demand among the little towns of the High Pyrenees and created the Eye-Health project supported by the technical expertise of the i2CAT Foundation. The GPs who provide general health care in the area were equipped with a tele- medicine system and send ophthalmologic relevant information to the ILO headquarters where it is analyzed. Afterwards and as a consequence of the excellent results achieved by the Eye-Health projects, the ILO staff imagined the benefits that the Eye-Health system would bring to improve the development inside eye health field in a developing country. Telemedicine has the potential to decrease health care costs while increasing access, capacity, and quality of health care in sub-Saharan Africa, [2]. Nowadays they are involved in the deployment of a Tele- ophthalmologic system adapted to the needs and special characteristics of the main hospital of Kolda in Senegal. Josep Colomé, Jaume Benseny, Albert Domingo, Sergi Marí {josep.colome, jaume.benseny, albert.domingo, sergi.mari}@i2cat.net i2cat Foundation, Department of e-Health and e-Dependence Xavier Caufapé, Rafael Ferreruela {xcaufape, rferreruela}@ilooftalmologia.com ILO Lleida Ophthalmologic Institute Open Window to Senegal, the Eye-Health system deployment in Kolda 1