E-Health to be Developed in Africa

I found this to be a very hopeful report indeed!

Developing Countries Must Plan Road Map for eHealth

INTERVIEW
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008

By Boakai M. Fofana
Bellagio

Developing countries in the Global South, which have already introduced innovative technology such as mobile banking, need to drive the development of "eHealth" – the harnessing of Internet-enabled technologies to improve public healthcare, says Karl Brown, associate director of applied technology of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was interviewed by AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana, at a conference on the subject in Bellagio, Italy, which has been sponsored by the foundation.

What is the idea behind the eHealth initiative?

The idea is that technology is at a turning point. In the industrialized countries – i.e. the United States and Europe – there has been long experience with using communication technology in health care. There have been a lot of lessons learned, a lot of mistakes, but also a lot of successes. We feel that in the developing world there is now an opportunity to use information technology in a more integrated way in health-care systems.

The time is now, because we feel that health care systems are undergoing a process of enormous change. There's been a change in the burden of disease in many countries. There are increasing numbers of patients entering the health care system. There's more money being spent on health care in developing countries.

The other reason we think that now is the time for "eHealth" is that there are a thousand flowers blooming. There are a thousand different eHealth pilots around the world. But the space is still fragmented, and there has been a lot of reinvention of the wheel. Now, people are learning from the experience of countries which have moved further.

The other issue that I think is important is interoperability. You have a lot of countries where donors will come and build a database, for instance, to track the HIV program. And then another donor will come in and build a database to track the TB program. And then another donor builds a database to track the malaria program. And none of these databases can talk to one another.

Speaking of the African context, what are you hoping to achieve at the end of this conference?

One of those things we are hoping to achieve is a consensus amongst the participants on the value of eHealth and on the vision for eHealth for the world. Underneath that vision, we would like to work with the participants in achieving a road map for how to bring that about.

Since the focus of this conference is eHealth in the South [developing counties], we have brought a lot of participants from the South to this conference. At the Rockefeller Foundation, we believe the vision, the strategy and the road map should all be driven by the countries who are going to be impacted by this technology. It's not a northern [developed countries] initiative, where we will define the standards and the solutions and then give them to Africa.

Innovations are coming from different places in the world. If you look at innovations in mobile banking, what are the best mobile banking systems in the world? Kenya and South Africa. They are way more advanced than anything we have in the United States. I think innovation is coming from new quarters, so we need to find a way to engage the IT [information technology] sector in Africa and elsewhere in the world in support of better health.

Much more here:

http://allafrica.com/stories/200807240417.html

The two links at the end of the article also provide some useful background and insight.

Read more about Rockefeller's eHealth initiative

http://allafrica.com/healthafrica/health.pdf

The Rockefeller paper is well worth a read as it highlights just how much is possible with the simplest of technology. I was surprised just how much greater mobile phone penetration in Africa compared with the Internet is – as I guess I though both needed a lot of expensive infrastructure – but is seems that the desire to be in communication can overcome major barriers – even in the face of considerable difficulties.

Reading about the issues being faced and the priorities for services and applications is well worth while.

In the context of helping Africa – and in especially addressing issues associated with HIV and TB another major project worth being aware of is found here.

http://openmrs.org/wiki/OpenMRS

As they describe themselves

“OpenMRS^® is a community-developed, open-source, enterprise electronic medical record system framework. We've come together to specifically respond to those actively building and managing health systems in the developing world, where AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria afflict the lives of millions. Our mission is to foster self-sustaining health information technology implementations in these environments through peer mentorship, proactive collaboration, and a code base that equals or surpasses proprietary equivalents. You are welcome to come participate in our community, whether by implementing our software, or contributing your efforts to our mission!”

All in all – also an exciting initiative and well worth a browse – or more!

David.