TELECOMS
According to Roshan, one of Afghanistan’s top three operators, 25 per cent of children in the country die before their fifth birthday, due to illnesses such as pneumonia, poor nutrition and diarrhoea. Appropriate healthcare is extremely limited with only one doctor for every 100,000 people, so there is a strong need for telemedicine in Afghanistan in order to allow for more efficient medical services in the rural communities.
Market leadership is a close fought thing —Roshan, Afghan Wireless and MTN Afghanistan all have similar market share in a country with a population of 29 million. The main driver behind the operator’s telemedicine service is the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) which has a 51 per cent stake in Roshan and is part of the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of nine international development agencies and institutions that implement programs in rural development, education, health, culture, microfinance and business. The AKFED has partnered with the government of Afghanistan, the Aga Khan University hospital, Aga Khan Health Services, the French Medical Institute for Children and Cisco to roll out the telemedicine service in Afghanistan.
With the service being offered free of charge, Roshan is not looking to make direct profits from it but instead is looking to strengthen its brand in rural communities and improve living conditions and opportunities for the poor. The telemedicine service uses the operator’s network to transfer medical imaging such as X-Rays and CT scans from remote areas to the large hospitals in Kabul, Iraq and Pakistan to provide specialist remote medical diagnosis. It also provides videoconferencing for medical training which is 100 per cent subsidised and gives local doctors and nurses free university training. No costs are borne by the patients at any time.
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