The minister said that advancement of telemedicine could undermine privacy and security risks if not addressed properly as it involves mobile computing and networking.
“It is crucial to have guidelines that will protect the privacy and security of information collected through telemedicine technologies to safeguard patients and bolster public trust,” said Dr Rashid.
Dr Rashid said that communities are aware of cyber crime and government is doing its best to come up with laws to protect online information and doctors need to come up with rules and guidelines to ensure safety of patient’s information is maintained.
Telemedicine is the use of ICT to provide clinical health care from a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and improves access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities.
It is saves in emergency situations. Expounding further he said with telemedicine a health care provider communicates with a patient and relevant threats include breach of confidentiality during the collection of sensitive data or during transmission to the provider’s system as well as to data stored on them were possible.
The conference was organized by the Ministry of Health and social Welfare, Ministry for Communication, Science and Technology, Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and Universal Communication Access Fund.
The major objectives of the conference was to discuss a two year pilot project for telemedicine covering seven hospitals including, Mwananyamala, Mbeya, Temeke, Tumbi, Bagamoyo, Amana, Ilala hat will be linked to Muhimbili National Hospital. Reform Coordinator at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare OHSW, Dr Oberlin Kisanga, said that the lifespan of equipment used in telemedicine is rather short thus it has to be updated from time to time.
“As we are all aware how technology grows fast as programmes used this year may not be useful next year so it is something which we should be prepared for,” he said. Dr Kisanga said that it is high time telemedicine is added in the curriculum for medical students.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Hilda Mhagama
Quelle/Source: Daily News, 07.09.2014
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