FEATURE
With the publication of the National eHealth Strategy for
South Africa, the country now has a framework for making
progress in the development of better healthcare for all. But, as Rosemary Foster, one of the Strategy’s main architects, points out in this exclusive interview, it’s now time for
action – hard decisions need to be taken and implementation needs to take place.
I
t would be hard to find a country in the world where a healthcare system functioned without any problem, where users, providers and managers all agreed that things could not be any
better. Providing healthcare is a complex, costly and ever-changing process, in which the battles against disease, together with the care needs of patients, are governed by what resources are available. Advances in medical science and improving
diagnosis and treatments all help health providers and patients, but one of the single biggest drivers of better healthcare is ICT. Health information systems, mobile health technology and telemedicine are all continuing to change the way in which healthcare is delivered, monitored and managed. Implementing an effective eHealth strategy saves money and improves delivery – and nowhere is this needed more than in Africa and other developing parts of the world. However, in many parts of the world the coordination
of strategic eHealth policy has been a fragmented affair. Often, money invested in systems has been wasted when they have failed to deliver on what they have promised, and small, relatively successful pilot schemes have been unable to roll out due to issues of interoperability and lack of planning. In many ways, South Africa has been at the forefront
of developing eHealth systems. There have been notable success stories, such as in the Western Cape, where a primary healthcare information system has been developed and rolled out to all the primary healthcare institutions. However, this development has also been peppered with false starts, lack of coordinated governance and a mistrust between the public sector defining what is needed and the private sector supplying the technology – are they simply supplying technology or are they fulfilling that need? Recently, however, there has been a determined effort to drive forward the implementation of eHealth
14
solutions with the publication of the eHealth Strategy by the Ministry of Health. It’s a document many have been hoping for, as it seeks to provide a clear roadmap for the creation of an integrated, national and patient- centric system that, ultimately, delivers better healthcare within the cost constraints that still exist. But for many, including Rosemary Foster, of the
Research and Innovation Platform at South Africa’s Medical Research Council and one of the main architects of the report, the publishing of the eHealth strategy is only the first of many milestones. “Now the National eHealth Strategy has been written,
agreed upon and published, we have to focus on how the Strategy is going to be realised,” says Foster. “We need to get on with an implementation plan and begin to execute some of its recommendations.” Foster is determined that action needs to happen
now, and that too much time isn’t lost between getting the strategy out and achieving some early milestones, as has happened before in South Africa. “We may lose some of the momentum the Strategy has created unless we act fast,” she says. It’s a huge task, of course, and Foster not only urges
patience, but outlines some positive progress, highlighting a project looking to develop a national standards framework for interoperability. However, she is still determined to ward off any complacency. “On its own that project is not sufficient to get us going,” she continues. “There are other things that need to happen in parallel with that, such as the development of enterprise architecture so we know where we want to go and how we are going to get there. We need to start spelling out specific requirements, and by doing this alongside the development of interoperability standards we can really pick up momentum.” Foster is clear about the simplicity of how this shift in momentum can be achieved – and it is a view
“We need to get more
people involved in healthcare in African
countries to talk together”
Insight Publishers | Projects
Decision time for eHealth
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132