KT, and the Yonsei University Health System set out to improve the medical environment in Africa

kt (CEO Hwang Chang-Gyu, kt.com), the Yonsei University Health System and Rwanda's Kigali Public University are collaborating to improve Rwanda's medical treatment system. On July 21st they revealed that the three had signed a MOU on a digital healthcare pilot project.

The Memorandum of Understanding was reached, after group of leaders from Ministry of Health and Welfare (Headed by Gwon Deok-Cheol) visited the Rwandan Department of Health. During the visit, the two countries had a discussion on coordinating their health care, in June of this year. It was during this meeting that the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Rwandan government concluded a MOU on coordinating healthcare.

The central African country of Rwanda is an example of a country which has fallen behind in terms of medical treatment. Rwanda has 1/4th the number of doctors per person when compared to the African average, at just 0.65 doctors per 10,000 people. It takes over an hour to reach medical facilities for 27% of the population, showing the lack of medical infrastructure. This makes it difficult to have early diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, often missing a critical window.

In order to improve this, kt and the Yonsei University Health System are launching a pilot project, using the best integrated ICT technology, to create a mobile diagnosis program and offer the best possible medical solutions and improve the medical environment in Rwanda.

The mobile diagnosis program kt will be implementing will allow the detection of malaria, dengu, aids and kidney failure using small samples of blood and urine. The health analysis data will be able to be transmitted over the LTE network kt began constructing in Rwanda in 2013. The data will be sent to the Medical Data Amalgamation Center built at the Kigali Public University. Yonsei University Health System’s medical consultant team will be systematically managing the project.

The director of kt's Healthcare Business Management Cha Dong-seok said

"The mobile diagnostic device is the optimal way of improving medical access. The conclusion of the MOU and launching of the pilot project are expected to improve the medical treatment environment in Rwanda."

Yonsei University Health System’s medical college dean Song Si-yeoung said

"When establishing Severance hospital's u-Health system in Rwanda, we hope to apply the experience learned from the remote healthcare system in Russia and central Asian countries, to guide in setting up the system. Yonsei University Health System is continually pushing to improve the health of humanity in Africa's neglected regions through continuous research and development."

Rwanda's Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho said

"With the recent signing of the MOU, the basic preparations to Rwanda's health and medical systems have begun. This is an opportunity to improve access to medical services, resolve the information gap."

kt stated "starting in 2012 a dielectric analysis platform named Genome Cloud was released, and it has been driving the bio-info-medics industry. From 2015 kt and the city of Daegu been working together to develop and provide top of the line healthcare. Through this cooperation they built an On-demand Daily Healthcare Model Complex, which is fundamental in pushing forward global healthcare.

※ Image Background: Signing of the MOU on location in Rwanda

On June 10th in Ministry of Health government building in Kigali Rwanda a memorandum of understanding was signed to improve the healthcare environment in Rwanda. In the picture from the left Lee Dong-gu Korean diplomat for Rwanda, Song Si-yeoung Yeonsei Medical Center's dean of medical department, Gwon Deok-cheol the Ministry of Health and Welfare's health care policy leader, Agnes Binagwaho Rwanda's Minister of Health, Cha Dong-seok director of kt's Healthcare Business Management