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Education increases teleneurology utilization: towards the Intersectoral Global Action Plan on epilepsy in Africa
European Journal of Neurology ; 29:267-268, 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1978453
ABSTRACT
Background and

aims:

Epilepsy burden in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. People with epilepsy (PWE) are estimated to be over 20 millions, with about 1 neurologist every 3-5 millions inhabitants, meaning more than 90% of epileptic patients are managed by health workers (HW) with insufficient education in Epilepsy, and 75% of them have no access to treatments. Moreover COVID-19 pandemic is affecting epilepsy management in SSA through care disruption. Teleneurology has the potential to improve this situation, although poor education of HW is associated with its underutilization. We measured the changes of teleneurology requests from primary cares in SSA after an education program on epilepsy.

Methods:

Global Health Telemedicine (GHT) offers remote advices and education to HW of the Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means (DREAM) program active in 10 SSA countries. GHT-DREAM recently started an epilepsy program in Malawi and Central African Republic (CAR) with education and training courses delivered both locally and remotely.

Results:

In Malawi and CAR DREAM follows 18,770 patients, 569 (3,0%) suffering from epilepsy. The total number of teleneurology requests increased from 91 in 2019 to 141 in 2020 to 802 in 2021;>90% were for PWE.

Conclusion:

Education and training in epilepsy increased the number of tele-requests by improving knowledge and communication between SSA HW and European neurologists. Partnerships can bring neurologists where there are none, contributing to limit COVID-19 care disruption thus reducing the treatment gap in SSA. Our results move towards the Intersectoral Global Action Plan 2022-2031 in SSA. (Figure Presented).
Keywords

Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: European Journal of Neurology Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: European Journal of Neurology Year: 2022 Document Type: Article