The Director of the Tanzanian Training Centre for International Health (TTCIH), Prof Senga Pemba said in Bagamoyo that unskilled human resource in the health sector was acting as a stumbling block leading to underutilisation of resources.
"The current human resource in the health sector is not aware of the national e-health strategy launched last year and this is a problem because we cannot have it implemented," he said.
Prof Pemba was speaking in a two-day e-health workshop organised by the Christian Social Services Commission through its AfyaMtandao Project in collaboration with the TTCIH under the sponsorship of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD).The workshop which brought various experts from abroad, public and private institutions was focused on the issues related to telemedicine and health management information systems.
Prof Pemba said a lot is happening in the e-health and the workshop participants were trying to share experiences on what is being done in the country and see whether the requirements were being fulfilled.
"We need to establish challenges to work on and explore the opportunities we can make use of and strengthen our collaboration by forming a community of practice," Prof Pemba who is also the Deputy Principal Academic, Research and Consultancy at St Francis University College of Health and Allied Science.
He added that the world was changing so fast towards adopting e-health, adding that Tanzania cannot afford to lag behind. "We need advocacy on e-health strategy, intensifying e-learning among health workers and we need to train people in health informatics," he said.
Prof Andrew Swai a workshop participant said that continued professional development is crucial in sharpening skills of health staff in e-health.
He added that in Kenya and Uganda the continued professional development trainings are given priority, adding that Tanzania was about to start as the move is a requirement in the EAC member states.
"If we do not emphasise continued professional development people will continue working the same way they were taught without putting in to consideration technological advancement," he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Abdulwakil Saiboko
Quelle/Source: Daily News, 07.05.2014
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