Addis Ababa — Ten selected hospitals in the country will soon begin telemedicine services to fight poverty and increase the current poor health coverage, officials said on Wednesday.

The hospitals to get the facility are those in rural parts of the country with an average distance of 500 KM from the capital.

"We have been undertaking pilot projects in the past few weeks where we have seen encouraging results to expand the service at large. Thousands of people are expected to get the service, particularly in the rural areas of the country. The service seeks to provide an online network for selected ten hospitals and health districts in the country" Ethiopian Minister of Health, Dr, Thewodros Adhanom Said.

When the service goes fully operational in all the selected hospitals and health districts, the telemedicine is hoped to help reduce the high infant's mortality rate, one of the highest in the world, and to increase the current 60 % health coverage in the coming few years.

"The telemedicine service we have launched here in Ethiopia would also help us in the fight against poverty and would reduce infant mortality rates in the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Telemedicine has a big advantage for countries like Ethiopia where over 85 % people are living in rural parts," Dr. Adhanom said.

With an estimated 74 million people, Ethiopia has 190 hospitals, including those hospitals belonging to private and NGOs.

According to available information from the Ethiopian ministry of health, one doctor is said to give medical services for 38,000 people.

Statistics shows that Ethiopia has around 2,000 doctors in total.

Out of the estimated 2,000 doctors, around 60 % of them are said to be concentrated in the capital, Addis Ababa where around five million people live.

Telemedicine is most useful when patients are extremely isolated such as in remote and rural communities or where specialist are in a very high demand, according to Dr, Nega Alemayehu who is a telecommunication expert .

"The already installed Broadband Multimedia and Broadband VSAT networks could therefore enable telemedicine to run successfully and properly implemented far better than the previous available telecom technologies," the expert said.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) welcomed the Ethiopia's initiative to expand telemedicine services and has promised to support the country in promoting the new technology.

"ITU will do technical and logistic support for the ongoing efforts to promote telemedicine in Ethiopia,"Ms. Chali Tumelo, ITU Senior Advisor for Network management and Development, Eastern and Southern Africa said.