Welcome To International Medical Exchange

Improving Health Services in Africa: Challenges & Opportunities

The International Medical Exchange, Inc. (IME) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to mobilizing resources and implementing programs to assist African countries to improve the quality of health services, expand access to health care, and cover the associated costs. Africa is a continent rich in resources with a population of over 700 million. Nonetheless, it enters the new millennium facing extraordinary healthcare challenges. Only about half the population (53%) has access to health services and less than 30% have access to essential medicines. Thousands of new healthcare providers must be trained to adequately meet the demands of a rapidly growing and changing population.

Concerted efforts must also be undertaken to address those problems successfully, and there is an urgent need for capacity development. However, the emergence of an international consensus that the health challenges of Africa are a shared global responsibility, combined with decreasing computing and telecommunications costs, new developments in medical research, and changes in U.S. policy towards Africa, all represent tremendous opportunities for positive action.

To take concrete, practical action to significantly improve the health of the people of Africa, IME is taking take full advantage of this convergence of favorable factors. By effectively mobilizing diverse resources worldwide, IME has emerged as a leader in health care provider training, developing and managing strategic partnerships, and in the effective deployent of Telemedicine and Mobile Health Clinics in underserved regions. IME's current and future proposals seek to leverage Telemedicine significantly, to promote public health in underserved regions, with a strong emphasis on prevention.

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In the Spotlight

IME Organizes symposium on Developing Sustainable African Healthcare Delivery Systems

IME initiatives promoting healthcare delivery to rural southern Africa are profiled in these TV and radio segments. LEARN MORE...

These media profiles coincided with IME's symposium on Developing Sustainable African Healthcare Delivery Systems, originally held in Cape Town, September 30th - October 2nd, 2002.

The IME News & Press page is located here...