Tag: health systems
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Feb 28, 2011
Without the User, There Is No System: Harnessing Technology through the eHealth Workforce
When we talk about building strong health systems and the health workers needed to run these systems, we often think about doctors or nurses or community health workers. Just as crucial to health systems are robust health information systems that help manage and make accessible information about patients, clinics, budgets, payroll, and all the other details that make a health care system work. When it comes to building a strong electronic health (eHealth) information system, the user is, arguably, the most important part. An eHealth workforce requires system administrators, programmers, and analysts who sustain and extend a country’s health information systems and eHealth technologies. Many countries in the developing world have growing but weak information and communication systems, which make building the eHealth infrastructure system an ongoing challenge. Dr. Girma Azene of Tulane University’s Technical Assistance Project in Ethiopia said recently at a conference, “Nobody feels the pain of lack of information like I do, because I was the planning person with the Federal Ministry of Health, and it was the greatest problem we had for the last... Read More » -
Aug 16, 2010
Talking Technology: It Matters to Health Systems
I recently traveled to visit three of IntraHealth’s offices in Ethiopia to work with them on how to best use the technological access they have. Building better health systems requires offering health workers—and those who support them—access to the latest technology. This includes stable computer networks, which allows health workers to do everything from report on important clinical data to process key financial information. Ethiopia uses a lot of hydroelectricity, and there are frequent power outages and rolling blackouts, particularly during the dry season. No electricity means no Internet. Often in rural areas having a working Internet connection on any given day is the exception. Although things are getting better in East Africa with the SEACOM fiber that provides some African countries with broadband, Ethiopia is not yet connected to it. In Ethiopia, and even in countries that are connected to the SEACOM fiber, Internet service providers often oversell their actual bandwidth, which means they are selling to more users than the system can handle simultaneously. Even with a 1 MB Internet connection, you may only be able to transmit and... Read More »
