All Africa Telemedicine and Telehealth Conference: Forging a Common Vision for Health and Technology Integration Or All Africa Telemedicine and Telehealth Conference: Envisioning Medicine and Technology Together Yaounde, Cameroun June 12-16, 2004 The objectives of the conference are to: § Review various developments in the field of international public health surveillance and practice, including advances in telehealth/telemedicine, and to identify and articulate the adaptation of best practices and technologies for the continent. § Review latest international developments in the application of telehealth/telemedicine strategies to achieving health promotion and disease prevention. § Review and strengthen current strategies within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world for sharing health information as a critical component of patient diagnosis and treatment. § Identify the nature and strengthen the capabilities of existing and planned information technology infrastructure that could support telehealth/telemedicine services in Africa. § Review and recommend measures to strengthen current investments in information technology-based resources in order to advance widespread health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment. § Identify an appropriate policy and program support framework(s) that would best facilitate successful telehealth/telemedicine services within and between the various African countries. § Enumerate existing health networks on the continent, confirm their goals for continental network standardization and interoperability, and identify measures to link the various networks into a comprehensive, integrated continental telehealth system. The overall goal is to create a common ground upon which to build innovative thinking on the use of information technology to protecting the health of all Africans. This is indeed one of the great opportunities made possible by the advent and rapid advance of information technology and the internet. Background: After more than three decades of independence, Africans continue to be overburdened by problems of underdevelopment, poverty and insecurity. At the same time, for the most part efforts to evolve modern social and political institutions to respond to global changes, challenges, and opportunities have either failed or remained weak. Yet, the continent’s ability to attain a productive, flexible and responsive orientation to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century depends, in part, on its collective ability to devise and utilize such institutions. This conference seeks to act as a catalyst for continental institution building in the health sector, pulling together individuals and organizations with expertise in health and information technology, as well as those working towards the integration or sharing of health treatment systems across the continent. More specifically, the conference will bring together African and international experts in the areas of health systems organization and management, information technology, clinical care, epidemiology, telemedicine and telehealth, health promotion and disease prevention, health services policy, and regional health institution building. Also, we plan to invite, and hope to involve, African deans of schools of medicine in this conference, so that they could provide their input on how health information technology could be used to enhance medical education in Africa. In addition, we hope to gain their invaluable insights on how African medical institutions could use such technology to establish active and collaborative relationships with each other, and with similar institutions in the developed world.