e-HEALTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Saba Khan

The developing countries have many issue which need to be addressed and amongst them adopting eHealth has also emerged as an important matter. Most of the low and middle income countries are still struggling with their health outcomes, working with their traditional health systems, and perhaps adopting eHealth is a ray of hope for improving health systems and outcomes.

Although there is little evidence regarding the benefits of eHealth in developing countries, but the available literature shows that they have benefitted mostly from health information systems, clinical support for health professionals and laboratory information systems (Piette et al, 2012). Using mobile technology via sms, for disease surveillance and management of chronic conditions has also produced beneficial outcomes (Piette et al, 2012). In the long run eHealth can prove very efficient and cost effective for developing countries (Piette at al, 2012)

The challenges for eHealth in developing countries are mainly financial, technical and governance/policy concerns, as evident from a study from Tanzania and Mozambique (Kimaro & Nhamphosa, 2016). This study can be applicable to other developing countries as well, because apart from certain sociocultural factors, the situation in most of the developing countries is the same. In low and middle income counties, mostly the eHealth projects are donor dependant which makes it flawed, the reason being donor interests, a ‘top down’ approach and implementation of a foreign program which does not suit local needs/priorities (Kimaro & Nhamposa, 2016). The national eHealth initiative in Ghana has identified lack of skilled human resource and infrastructure as important barriers for eHealth, with the objective of educating health professionals and improving primary healthcare (Yusif & Soar, 2014)

The challenges to eHealth in developing countries can be overcome by encouraging a culture of integration and cooperation between the health ministry, the donor agencies and the software companies for the development of a flexible eHealth program, which can adapt to the local needs (Kimaro & Nhamposa, 2016). Yusif and Soar, 2014 have stressed gauging the preparedness of a developing country for the adoption of eHealth as a necessity and the ‘universal access to education’ as the key factor for success.

 Image courtesy by 'Pixaby'

References

 

Kimaro, CH. & Nhampossa, LJ. (2016). ‘Analyzing the Problem of Unsustainable Health

Information Systems in Less-Developed Economies: Case Studies From Tanzania and Mozambique’. Information Technology for Development, Vol. 11 (3) 273–298 (2005 ) C _ 2005. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/itdj.20016

 

Piette, DJ, Lun, KC, Moura Jr, AL, Fraser, SFH, Mechael, NP, Powell, J. and Khojag, RS. (2012). ‘Impacts of e-health on the outcomes of care in low- and middle-income

countries: where do we go from here?’ Bull World Health Organ 2012;90:365–372 | doi:10.2471/BLT.11.099069

 

Yusif, S. & Soar, J. (2014).‘Preparedness for e-Health in developing countries: the case of Ghana’. Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries. Vol. 8 No. 2, 2014.

Website: www.jhidc.org.