Preliminary experience with tele-sonography and tele-mammography in Togo.
Many medical centres are equipped with a sonograph. However, a sonographist is not always present or is not trained in all of the specialised domains of sonography. . A sonogram is not always possible due to a lack of physicians. This situation has given rise to the concept of remote-controlled sonography: tele-sonography, a medical procedure used in remote sonographic diagnosis in real time or deferred time. Tele-sonography can now be carried out in real time by the transmission of the expert's procedure (robotic system) or by the use of a 3D sonograph in real time. These modes of real time tele-sonography rely on expensive technologies requiring budgets and an infrastructure that is not always possible in developing countries where the needs in tele-medicine are increasing. This paper aimed to present a preliminary evaluation of a "low cost" system of sonographic tele-expertise in real time and the deferred sonographic telediagnosis accompanied by a tele-mammography between expert sites (university hospitals) and isolated sites (peripheral hospitals, dispensaries).
UMPS-CERCOM, service de médecine nucléaire et ultrasons, CHU Trousseau, avenue de la République à Chambray-les-Tours, Tours cedex 9, France. kadambounou@yahoo.fr
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K
Adambounou
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Farin
A
A
Boucher
K V
KV
Adjenou
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M
Gbeassor
K
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N'dakena
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N
Vincent
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P
Arbeille
D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017216:Telemedicine; D014037:Togo; D014463:Ultrasonography