The Free State Health Department will spend over R3.5 million to roll out telemedicine solutions in the next financial year, in an effort to improve service delivery.
The department says it has made funding available for telemedicine units in five regional hospitals: the Bongani, Dihlabeng, Boitumelo, Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli, Diamant and Jagersfontein hospitals.
Low bandwidth and limited Internet access are curbing technology advances in healthcare which could drastically improve medical services delivery, according to Yashik Singh, lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's department of tele-health.
There have been several local advances in the field of ICT-related healthcare recently, including a tele-psychiatry service, mobile pathology lab with satellite links for data transfer, and an artificial intelligence algorithm that predicts which HIV drugs a patient is resistant to.
A draft Broadband Policy had already been drawn up.
Speaking at the opening of the Broadband Policy colloquium, in Midrand, Pule highlighted that there was still “tremendous potential” for growth in broadband penetration in South Africa, adding this presented both challenges and opportunities for the developing country.
Read more: South Africa: Govt sees ‘tremendous potential’ for broadband growth
The Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) will miss the deadline for the final implementation of the first phase of its e-Cipro project.
According to Cipro CEO Keith Sendwe, the operation of the new workflow and document management system has been “slightly delayed” and will not be fully implemented this year.
The Department of Communications' (DOC's) newly released strategic plan will place a focus on building up small business in the ICT sector.
The plan marks a shift of mindset for the department that has traditionally supported the idea of using the industry to develop others. Speaking during an interview with ITWeb, director-general Mamodupi Mohlala said the department wants to enable small IT businesses to flourish.
Read more: South Africa: Department of Communications wants to expand IT industry