title: An e-health needs assessment of medical residents in Cameroon.
abstract: Medical residents from Yaounde I University in Cameroon are required to spend periods of time in rural or remote locations to complete their training. To determine if e-health might lessen their isolation and enhance patient care, a needs assessment of the residents was performed using a brief questionnaire (five items) about the situation in which residents found themselves outside their medical school environment. We gave the questionnaires to 45 residents. Seventeen questionnaires had been returned at the time of the site visit, a response rate of 38%. Most residents indicated that the ability to contact a mentor would have either made them feel more confident (16, or 94%) or altered their handling of recent cases (15, or 88%). All residents had access to a mobile phone, and many (11, or 65%) had used it to contact a medical colleague for guidance. A low-cost and technologically simple telemedicine solution that maximized use of mobile phone capability, provided access to medical and health-care information, and permitted exchange of images would be an appropriate response to the identified needs.
authors.affiliation: Global e-Health Research and Training Program, Health Telematics Unit, University of Calgary, G204 Health Sciences Centre, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary T2N 4N1, Alberta, Canada. rescott@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ndumbe
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wootton
mesh_terms: D002163:Cameroon; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine