Telemedicine transforms access to healthcare in Côte d'Ivoire

In Côte d'Ivoire, seeing a doctor no longer necessarily means spending hours travelling to a hospital or waiting for a consultation.

Since 2019, the Umed eHealth Center has used telemedicine to connect doctors with patients across Abidjan, offering an alternative to conventional consultations in a city where traffic congestion and long distances can make accessing healthcare challenging.

From behind a computer screen, Dr.

Esther Kassi-Aleba begins a consultation with a patient several kilometers away.

The patient is unable to travel to a healthcare facility, but through a video call, Kassi-Aleba can listen to her concerns, ask questions and assess her symptoms remotely.

There are no crowded waiting rooms or lengthy journeys — just an internet connection connecting the patient to medical care.

"We realized that for simple tests, such as a malaria test or minor symptoms, patients can face very long waiting times in hospitals," says Kassi-Aleba, a doctor at the Umed eHealth Center.

"We decided to take some of the pressure off hospitals by managing these minor conditions while using technology to improve access to healthcare." From the screen to the patient's home But the consultation does not always end online.

When a patient requires a physical examination or treatment, the center can dispatch a medical team to their home.

Kassi-Aleba says receiving care in familiar surroundings can also make the recovery process more comfortable.

"We recover more quickly at home.

With our family, and with a little family love, this enables us to recover better — or let's say, to recover more quickly," she says.

On one such visit, Nurse Micheline Apete prepares to make a home call.

"We're going to Attoban to see a patient suffering from abdominal pain.