Enhancing rural healthcare in Rwanda through clinical decision support [News and Notes]

Rural healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa is incredibly short-staffed. Too little attention is devoted to development of primary health-care systems. Better approaches are needed to treat all patients without having to add doctors or expensive equipment. This paper discusses a tested and proven computer-assisted diagnostic system called Early Detection and Prevention System (EDPS), which was developed by Dr. Abraham George of the George Foundation. It's use enables people without extensive medical training to help diagnose illness, resulting in more people being cared for, prioritizing the most serious cases, getting patients most in need to the doctor more quickly, and establishing an electronic, portable medical record.