Despite, the country’s development in the area of mobile communication, there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding harnessing the mobile revolution to improve health service delivery and inhuman resources for health training (mHealth).
Preliminary research indicates that mobile communication can be used to promote and support treatment compliance, data collection and diseases surveillance, health information systems and support tools for health care workers, health promotion and disease prevention and emergency medical response system.
Officiating the 2nd Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MOHAS) Scientific Conference in Dar es Salaam last week, The Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Gharib Bilal challenged the health scientific researchers who attended the conference to continue researching on the potential role of mobile communication in improving people’s health, and non communicable diseases.
“Compared to other forms of communication, mobile communication can overcome some of the traditional barriers to accessing essential information and services such as geographical isolation, gender and social stigma,’’ he said.
The conference whose theme was ‘Health Research, Training and Innovation for sustainable Development’ brought together scholars, young scientists, development partners’ representatives and policy makers in heath sectors from within and outside the country.
Specifically, the conference emphasized on the importance of research in health particularly in human resource for health training and innovation that are all important for sustainable development with the inclusion of ICT use in improving people’s health.
According to MUHAS Vice Chancellor, Prof Ephata Kaaya currently in the country mobile phone possession and usage is high among the people, hence they need to be trained to use mobile phone features such as alarm, voice mail, and interactive voice response in order to enable them to communicate frequently with health workers wherever they need them.
“mHealth has many applications. It can be used to facilitate data collection and to encourage health-care consumers to adopt healthy lifestyles or to self-manage chronic conditions. It can also be used to improve health-care service delivery processes by targeting health-care providers or communication between these providers and their patients…’’ he said.
“…For example, mobile technologies can be used to provide clinical management support in settings where there are no specialist clinicians, and they can be used to send patients test results and timely reminders of appointments,’’ Prof. Kaaya said during his exclusive interview with this paper.
“We need to re-organize ourselves and make the best use of the system to improve service delivery,” he added.
Using Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) as an example, he said patients’ information can be safely stored electronically making retrieval much easier, faster and generally more efficient.
He said the system will among other things, overcome fragmentation and duplication of services in the sector and allows fluid flow of patient information from one medical facility to another and within the health ministry departments, a vital aspect when it comes to making referrals.
“This will reduce operational costs immensely by cutting down filing expenses, paper and other stationary costs,” he went on to explain pointing out that it is vital for health scientific researchers to work on a matter to help the country to join the rest of the world in health related issues.
Making his presentation on the potential role of mobile communication in health sector during the occasion, Prof. John Nkoma who is the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Managing Director, said: “Mobile is so ubiquitous in emerging markets. Infrastructure can more easily be deployed than fixed line infrastructure. We are looking at how mobile communications can improve health care."
According to him, mobile communication in the country has proved a number of successes in business and financial sectors hence now it is the right time for health sector to enjoy the fruits of the industry.
“Some of the areas which mobiles phones can be used include SMS text alerts to enable patients adhere to their prescriptions, education programmes to improve health awareness, data collection and training of health care workers… majority of patients may use mobile phones to make calls to health workers to clarify their doubts on side effects, food, and symptoms of the disease,’’ he said.
In Tanzania, the national e-Health Strategy was launched in October of last year to enable the sector perform more efficiently.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), eHealth is defined as the cost-effective and secure use of ICT in support of health and health-related fields, including healthcare services; health surveillance; health literature; and health education, knowledge, and research.
The definition introduces a range of services such as electronic health records to ensure continuity of patient care across time, mobile health services (mHealth), telehealth, health research, consumer health informatics to support individuals in health decision making, and e-learning by health workers.
In practical terms, eHealth is a means of ensuring that correct health information is provided in a timely manner, where it is needed and to whom it is needed, in a secure, electronic form for the purpose of improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery and prevention programs.
However, it is reported that low human resource capacity in the health sector is occasioning under utilization of the country’s available electronic health facilities.
Director of the Tanzanian Training Center for International Health Prof Senga Pamba made the observation at an e-health workshop recently in Bagamoyo, Coast region where he called for immediate intervention.
Organised by the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) in collaboration with Ifakara health institute, the workshop brought together e-health experts from across the country to share their e-health service experiences and its efficiency in increasing access to health services.
The general consensus, as expressed by Prof Pamba, is that: “Performance of e-health in the country is poor due to unawareness of the people in the health sector over the use of the advanced technological instruments.
“We need to adapt to technology advances,” he told the attendants at the workshop.
According to the Minister of Health and Social Welfare Dr. Seif Rashid, Tanzania is still very much in the novice stage when it comes to e-health use.
However, he said the ministry is working systematically to make the transfer and at the moment they are embarking on the second phase of its implementation, forming e-health foundations and health servants’ training on the use of the system.
He explained that the e-health foundations will ensure set up of basic infrastructural building blocks required to enable electronic sharing of health information across the Tanzanian health sector.
“The government is working to improve and expand the system to connect all hospitals and health institutions in the country to a single computerized system,’’ said the Minister during his exclusive interview with this paper.
According to the Minister,Once the operations report is submitted, the government will then advertise a tender for the construction of required e-health infrastructures.
While Tanzania is still struggling to initiate the program, in South Africa mobile communication is among the best ways used to encourage people taking their medication for Tuberculosis.
Developed by David Green, a South African GP, SIMpill uses a prescription bottle with an embedded mobile phone chip. Basically, it is a pill bottle that uses mobile phone technology to remind people on medication to take their pills on time. It also warns the patient if they are about to take too much.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Malela Kassim
Quelle/Source: IPPmedia, 20.05.2014
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