Activity Description: The IKON project is a pilot that experiments with tele-radiology via the Internet. Almost all radiologists in Mali are located in the capital Bamako, which means that up till now all expert diagnosis of radios, had to take place in the capital, sometimes up to 1.000 kilometres from the regional hospital where the first analysis was made. The tele-radiology project provides a solution for this problem, by offering the possibility to send or receive radio scans and diagnoses over the Internet.

The direct beneficiaries of the project are the hospital staff and patients whose radios need to be submitted to expert diagnosis by a radiologist. The expected economic benefits are significant reductions on travel costs for patients, and improved use of local hospital facilities (less pressure on – more expensive - hospital facilities in the capital. The project also will contribute to the understanding of the possibilities of ICT for Health by hospital staff and to the development of general ICT-skills and/or specific ICT4Health skills

The very first real-life exchange of radio scans took place in April 2005 between the regional hospital of Mopti and the national hospital Point G in Bamako, and immediately revealed its potential. An initial diagnosis by local staff in Mopti of a radio of a patient’s hand - potential bone cancer in one of the fingers - was dismissed by the experts in Bamako as a default error on the radio film, thus saving the patient from the premature amputation he himself had requested.