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The concept of telemedicine (TM) in the BDT dates back to the first WTDC held in Buenos Aires in 1994. Its practical implementation, however, derives from the second such Conference (Valletta, 1998) which approved Recommendation SG2/6-98 “Impact of telecommunications in health care and other social services”.
The 10 points raised in this Recommendation are a follow-up to an earlier study undertaken by the BDT which resulted in the report "Telemedicine and Developing Countries". Since 1996, the BDT has initiated several TM pilot projects to ensure that the benefits of TM are available to developing countries. Most of these pilot projects are based on the results of BDT’s identification missions carried out by TM experts to Bhutan, Cameroon, Georgia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. During these missions, the TM expert - together with representatives of the Ministry of Health and other health care staff in each country - identifies the needs and priorities for the introduction of TM services taking due account of the state of the telecommunication network and its likely evolution.
Several countries have launched TM pilot projects, notably Ukraine (October 1997 and March 1998), Mozambique (January 1998), Malta (March 1998), Myanmar (April 1998), Georgia (1999), Senegal and Uganda (2000). Follow-up activities for implementing these projects were carried out. Project expansion is currently ongoing in Mozambique and Senegal. For the year 2001, it is foreseen that assistance will be provided to Guinea, Ethiopia and Uzbekistan in setting up TM pilot projects. Experience shows that creation of a national telemedicine task force was very appropriate for speedy TM deployment.
WTDC-98 also approved a new TM study question (No. 14) within the ITU-D SG2 entitled “Fostering the application of telecommunication in health care. Identifying and documenting success factors for implementing telemedicine”. A Questionnaire on this subject has been designed and replies thereto are providing important and interesting inputs to the study. Additional information on this subject may be found in document 2/116-E (30 August 2000) of ITU-D SG2.
The first World Telemedicine Symposium for Developing Countries was held in Portugal from 30 June - 4 July 1997 as a result of the ITU-D work in the field of TM, as well as in response to the 1996 Abidjan and Beirut RTDC Recommendations.
 A second World Symposium was held in Argentina from 7-11 June 1999. Sub-regional TM seminars were organized in Mozambique, January 1998, for the English speaking African countries and in Moscow, Russian Federation from 14 to 17 December 1999 for the CIS region. The Moscow seminar’s report is available.
A workshop on Standardization in E-health was held in Geneva, Switzerland, 23 - 25 May 2003.
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