"Telemedicine" links Africans to Indian expertise By Barry Malone ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Troubled by a difficult case, doctor Asfaw Atnafu decides to seek advice. He walks into a consulting room at Black Lion Hospital in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and greets a doctor at the Care Hospital in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. Linked by a high-speed Internet connection, the doctors study X-rays and laboratory results. Flipping between charts, they use light pens to point out important features. They can see each other in windows on their screens, while medical charts fill the rest of the display. India launched this "telemedicine" project in Ethiopia last July at a cost of $2.13 million. The project links hospitals in Ethiopia with the Hyderabad-based Care Group of Hospitals, India's leading cardiac institute. The scheme is part of the pan-African e-network, a 5.42 billion-rupee ($135.6-million) joint initiative between the African Union and India which was launched in Ethiopia last year to improve Internet links and communication. India is likely to highlight its prowess in information communication technology (ICT) as a way of strengthening ties at summit of African heads of state in New Delhi on April 8 and 9 -- the first meeting of its kind. "By using telemedicine, a country like Ethiopia, a Third World country with a problem with funding and manpower, can benefit greatly," radiologist Asfaw said. There is just one doctor for every 37,000 people in Ethiopia -- sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous country and a land where vast distances separate rural communities. "Rural parts of the country are devoid of medical care. This technology has already helped, but its scope is immense," said Asfaw. Under the scheme, the Black Lion, Ethiopia's only teaching hospital, has also been linked to the remote Nekempte Hospital, 300 km (185 miles) west of Addis Ababa. "We want Africans to share expertise with each other and for areas with few doctors to be linked to hospitals in cities so doctors there can fill the gap," said Ratan Singh, project director for the Indian government agency responsible for implementing the technology and training Ethiopians to use it. Ethiopia's health problems are mirrored across Africa where doctors and nurses are often overworked and underpaid, villagers have to walk miles to the nearest clinic and drugs and treatment are often beyond the means of ordinary people. Aggravating these problems, rich countries are poaching so many African health workers that a team of international disease experts recently said the practice should be viewed as a crime. CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY The Indian project aims to ease some of these burdens but it also dovetails with the country's drive to deepen its links with resource-rich Africa to secure energy supplies and markets.