Seychelles joins the pan-African e-network project

Seychelles is the second African country, after Senegal to join the $1 billion pan-African e-network project initiated by the Indian government.

The project aims to develop the continent information and communication technologies. Seychelles is expected to benefit through the tele-medicine programs, e-learning and teleconferencing facility for the head of state.

The first facility to be launched this week at the Ministry of Health headquarters was the tele-medicine network. The system will be used to share knowledge from Indian doctors with their Seychellois counterparts through online training programs and getting second opinion on medial diagnosis.

Victoria hospital will eventually be connected to twelve Indian tele-medicine specialist centres and four from the African continent, including 53 hospitals.


“Tele-medicine presents countless possibilities for the doctors and patients. It will improve the quality of health care, reduce cost and offer educational opportunities,” said Marie-Pierre Lloyd, the Minister responsible for health.

The education network will allow similar information sharing.

The E-network project was first announced by Indian president Abdul Kalam in South Africa in 2004. In October 2005, the Indian government and the Africa Union signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize the project.

Seychelles hosts e-health conference

Health ministers and their counterparts in charged of information and communication technology (ICT) from thirteen East, Central and Southern African countries are meeting in Seychelles to discuss the promotion of e-health on the continent.

The meeting is aimed at promoting the use of information technology in the continent’s health care system to help achieve the millennium goals and to attain the most with the limited financial resources.



“Our nations must forge ahead to develop our systems and processes if we are to ensure a better, improved and sustainable quality of life for our people, with health developments taking centre stage,” Vice-President Joseph Belmont said in the conference’s opening address.

The three day conference is an opportunity for the continent’s health and ICT expert to rethink how best to effect change and improve health service provision for the benefit of both consumers and providers using ICT.

“E-health holds the promise of a more evidence-based, result-oriented and effective health care system,” said Belmont.

The conference organizers said the event will allow governments to improve services for patients and communities, increase access to services and improve the training of health workers, with enormous impact on these processes.

Editors' note: e-health is a relatively recent term for health care practice which is supported by electronic processes and communication. The term is inconsistently used: some would argue it is interchangeable with health care informatics and a sub set of health informatics, while others use it in the narrower sense of health care practice using the Internet. The term can encompass a range of services that are at the edge of medicine/health care and information technology.