BATON ROUGE La.
Victor Mbarika envisions Louisiana
doctors serving the sick and needy in Africa without
having to leave their American offices.
As director of Southern University’s new International
Center for Information Technology and Development, Mbarika is setting up
infrastructure in developing countries to provide greater health care access
there through “telemedicine.”
Telemedicine allows doctors here to use patient photos and
lists of symptoms sent online to make diagnoses and prescribe treatments
through village nurses to patients on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,
said Mbarika, a Cameroon native.
Information technology, or IT, is the equipment and
expertise that links computer-based information systems.
Mbarika, a Southern e-business assistant professor
specializing in information technology, said the deplorable health care
situation in Africa is a nightmare.
“Coming from a developing nation myself, I feel
obligated to contribute back,” he said.
