Information and communication technologies and health in low income countries: the potential and the constraints
01 Jan 2001-Bulletin of The World Health Organization (World Health Organization)-Vol. 79, Iss: 9, pp 850-855
TL;DR: The potential offered by technological progress in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) industries for the health sector in developing countries is outlined, some examples of positive experiences in India are presented, and the difficulties in achieving this potential are considered.
Abstract: This paper outlines the potential offered by technological progress in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) industries for the health sector in developing countries, presents some examples of positive experiences in India, and considers the difficulties in achieving this potential. The development of ICTs can bring about improvements in health in developing countries in at least three ways: as an instrument for continuing education they enable health workers to be informed of and trained in advances in knowledge; they can improve the delivery of health and disaster management services to poor and remote locations; and they can increase the transparency and efficiency of governance, which should, in turn, improve the availability and delivery of publicly provided health services. These potential benefits of ICTs do not necessarily require all the final beneficiaries to be reached directly, thus the cost of a given quantum of effect is reduced. Some current experiments in India, such as the use of Personal Digital Assistants by rural health workers in Rajasthan, the disaster management project in Maharashtra and the computerized village offices in Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry, suggest creative ways of using ICTs to improve the health conditions of local people. However, the basic difficulties encountered in using ICTs for such purposes are: an inadequate physical infrastructure; insufficient access by the majority of the population to the hardware; and a lack of the requisite skills for using them. We highlight the substantial cost involved in providing wider access, and the problem of resource allocation in poor countries where basic infrastructure for health and education is still lacking. Educating health professionals in the possible uses of ICTs, and providing them with access and "connectivity", would in turn spread the benefits to a much wider set of final beneficiaries and might help reduce the digital divide.
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TL;DR: SAFE and Epi Info are both cost-free and have low system requirements--characteristics that render this framework and software beneficial for developing countries.
12 citations
Cites background from "Information and communication techn..."
...Although information technology is only a small part of the entire decision-making process [7], proper use of information technology can lead to improved health information [8]....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2016
12 citations
Cites background from "Information and communication techn..."
...The Governments in these nations therefore find it complex to determine their investment priorities especially in ICT (Chandrasekhar and Ghosh, 2001)....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the design and evaluation of the ICT4D network and its applications in South Africa, as well as some of the aspects of user-centric QoS and network design considerations.
Abstract: Computer scientists must align social and technical factors for communication technologies in developing regions yet lack a framework to do so. The novel Softbridge framework comprises several components to address this gap. The Softbridge stack abstraction supplements the established Open Systems Interconnect model with a collection of technical layers clustered around 'people' issues. The Softbridge stack aligns the technological design of communication systems with awareness of social factors characteristic of developing regions. In a similar fashion, a new evaluation abstraction called Quality of Communication augments traditional Quality of Service by considering socio-cultural factors of a user's perception of system performance. The conceptualisation of these new abstractions was driven by long-term experimental interventions within two South African digital divides. One field study concerned communication bridges for socio-economically disadvantaged Deaf users. The second field study concerned a wireless telehealth system between rural nurses and doctors. The application domains were quite different yet yielded similarities that informed the Softbridge and Quality of Communication abstractions. The third Softbridge component is an iterative socially aware software engineering method that includes action research. This method was used to guide cyclical interventions with target communities to solve community problems with communication technologies. The Softbridge framework components are recursive products of this iterative approach, emerging via critical reflection on the design, evaluation and methodological processes of the respective field studies. Quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated on a series of communication prototypes for each field study with usage metrics, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observation in the field. Action research journals documented the overall process to achieve post-positivist recoverability rather than positivistic replicability. Analysis of the results from both field studies was iteratively synthesised to develop the Softbridge framework and consider its implications. The most significant finding is that awareness of social issues helps explain why users might not accept a technically sound communication system. It was found that when facilitated effectively by intermediaries, the Softbridge framework enables unintended uses of experimental artefacts that empower users to appropriate communication technologies on their own. Thus, the Softbridge framework helps to align technical and socio-cultural factors.
11 citations
Cites background from "Information and communication techn..."
...…to the developing region context: 1) continuing education for health practitioners, 2) ability to deliver healthcare to remote and poor locations and 3) transparent access to information to "improve the availability and delivery of publicly provided health services" (Chandrasekhar & Ghosh, 2001)....
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TL;DR: The use of IT in MRD can facilitate access to department, expedite communication within and outside department, reduce space with electronic medical records, reduce costs, accelerate activities such as coding by use of coding guide software and facilitate retrieval of records that will ultimately improve the performance of MRD.
Abstract: UNLABELLED Medical Record Department (MRD) has a vital role in making short and long term plans to improve health system services. The aim of this study was to describe performance improvement indicators of hospital MRD and information technology (IT). COLLECTION OF DATA A search was conducted in various databases, through related keywords in articles, books, and abstracts of conferences from 2001 to 2009. About 58 articles and books were available which were evaluated and finally 15 of them were selected based on their relevance to the study. MRD must be capable of supporting tasks such as patient care and continuity, institute management processes, medical education programs, medical research, communication between different wards of a hospital and administrative and medical staff. The use of IT in MRD can facilitate access to department, expedite communication within and outside department, reduce space with electronic medical records, reduce costs, accelerate activities such as coding by use of coding guide software and facilitate retrieval of records that will ultimately improve the performance of MRD.
11 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The purpose of this project was to develop a nonprofit, volunteer-based model for providing nurse anesthesia continuing education that can be reproduced and used in any developing country.
Abstract: There are no set standards for nurse anesthesia education in developing countries, yet one of the keys to the standards in global professional practice is competency assurance for individuals. Nurse anesthetists in developing countries have difficulty obtaining educational materials. These difficulties include, but are not limited to, financial constraints, lack of anesthesia textbooks, and distance from educational sites. There is increasing evidence that the application of knowledge in developing countries is failing. One reason is that many anesthetists in developing countries are trained for considerably less than acceptable time periods and are often supervised by poorly trained practitioners, who then pass on less-than-desirable practice skills, thus exacerbating difficulties. Sustainability of development can come only through anesthetists who are both well trained and able to pass on their training to others. The international nurse anesthesia continuing education project was developed in response to the difficulty that nurse anesthetists in developing countries face in accessing continuing education. The purpose of this project was to develop a nonprofit, volunteer-based model for providing nurse anesthesia continuing education that can be reproduced and used in any developing country.
11 citations
Cites background from "Information and communication techn..."
...Third, they can increase the efficiency of governance, which should, in turn, improve the availability and delivery of publicly provided health services.(12) Sehrt(13) asserts that despite worldwide economic slowdowns, Internet usage worldwide increased from 200 million users in the year 2000 to more than 600 million in 2002 and was expected to reach 2 billion at the end of 2005....
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TL;DR: This is a fascinating collection of essays exploring "why some people are healthy and others not," from a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives that challenges the widespread belief that health care is the most important determinant of health and argues for a more comprehensive and coherent understanding of the determinants of health.
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TL;DR: In this paper, composite solar cells of improved efficiency comprise two cells of different characteristics arranged in optical series but electrically insulated from each other, each cell is of larger crystal grain size than its substrate, which grain size is achieved by growing the cell semiconductor on a molten intermediate rheotaxy layer of a suitable semi-conductor which solidifies at a temperature below the melting temperature of the solar cell.
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the successful use of information and communication technology (ICT) in rural development is discussed, and sixteen case studies are presented, which spell out the various applications of ICT that have made a difference in the delivery of services or products in rural India.
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85 citations