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HealthNet
HealthNet Ethiopia
"HealthNet is being used by health professionals... for their own professional development, for teaching and enriching lecture notes, for research... and most importantly, for clinical service."
Shimelis Getu, Network Manager, HealthNet Ethiopia
Through HealthNet Ethiopia, thousands of health practitioners throughout Ethiopia have access to a wide range of information services that are critical to health care delivery. Health workers benefit from these services in a variety of ways:
- They exchange disease related information, hold consultations, collect and send epidemiological data and ask questions in search of solutions to specific health problems.
- They schedule consultations and referrals, making it unnecessary for ill patients to travel long distances with no guarantee of seeing a physician.
- They subscribe to electronic medical and health publications and search for information through GetWeb, a tool developed by SATELLIFE that allows users to download content from the World Wide Web with simple e-mail commands.
- Medical students and faculty exchange project documents, theses and other scholarly articles with colleagues around the world.
- The NGO community uses HealthNet to exchange reports on activities and on-going projects with international headquarters.
SATELLIFE established HealthNet Ethiopia in 1994 in collaboration with Addis Ababa University Medical School, which hosts the network. Initially, departments and units within the Faculty of Medicine were connected. Gradually, however, the Medical Library took over the operation and began to market the service throughout the country.
HealthNet Ethiopia has continued to increase its community, penetrating all health settings where a computer with a modem and a telephone line is available. Today, there are 62 points that are connected and making use of HealthNet's services. These points cover a wide geographical area and include hospitals, medical schools, non-profit organizations, clinics, health research centers and individual health practitioners at their homes or offices. The Gondar College of Medical Sciences and the Jimma Institute of Health Sciences, located in the northern and western parts of the country respectively, are more than 500 miles apart and have a total of 3,000 faculty and students who depend heavily on HealthNet Ethiopia for their communication and information needs.
An exciting development promises to increase dramatically the impact of HealthNet Ethiopia. Addis Ababa University has launched a university-wide networking initiative that will interconnect six campuses in Addis, including the Medical School where HealthNet Ethiopia is housed. This technical upgrade will enable HealthNet Ethiopia to significantly expand and upgrade its services to a larger community of health professionals throughout the country.
To maximize the effectiveness of the technology tools, HealthNet Ethiopia offers end-user training and customer support services. E-mail accounts are free of charge.
Contact Information:
HealthNet Ethiopia
Addis Ababa University
Faculty of Medicine
P.O.Box 3086
Addis Ababa , Ethiopia
Phone: 251-1- 15 96 34
Fax: 251-1- 51 30 99
Email: HealthNet.Ethiopia@eth.healthnet.org
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