Challenge


 * Challenges** :
 * Cutting down traveling costs for patients in the villages:
 * Doctors using unreliable sources to diagnose patients
 * Lack of knowledge and training on IT system and Medical Care
 * No centeral network administrator for hospital and villages
 * No integrated EMR (electronic medical record) system
 * No current backup or safety system for the data
 * Purchase of IT systems, EMR systems and implementation of a recovery program


 * All are mainly from insufficent funding


 * Solutions to Challenges**

Challenge: = = Electronic health systems have been successfully used in the care and treatment of HIV in Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, but few African countries have adopted the systems on a large scale. 1271254408
 * //Integration of EMR technology://**

At one of the locations a case [|study] was done to see the efficiency of EMR, it was found that after the adoption of electronic health records found that patient visits were 22 percent shorter, provider time per patient was reduced by 58 percent, and patients spent 38 percent less time waiting. 1271254408

Finding people with computer skills is not always easy in the developing world, particularly in rural areas, and "like any equipment, computers break down from time to time and require repair or replacement, which can cause some problems" and incur additional expenses. In addition, the data collectors are human, and therefore prone to the occasional error.
 * //Problem with EMR Solution//**:

Other problems: Lack of knowledge and training on IT system and Medical Care To help African countries WHO and its partners are working with educational institutions to deliver a Masters Degree in Health Workforce Development. The aim: to equip health managers so they can manage and plan better so people receive the health care they need. 1271258221 [|WHO]
 * Poor system security leading to virus and spyware
 * Unstable power supply
 * Lack of Technical support staff to maintain EMR 1271255754
 * //Challenge//**:
 * //Solution//**:

Mindset Network and the National Department of Health sources and creates digital health educational content in video, computer-based multimedia and print formats in five of the 11 official languages. it is best known for its satellite based closed broadcast channel for health, which is broadcast directly to over 280 hospitals and clinics in South Africa. [|www.ehealth-connection.org/.../County%20Case%20Study%20for%20eHealth%20South%20Africa.pdf] 1271561987

Doctors using unreliable sources to diagnose patients
 * //Challenge//:**

//**Solutions**//: Using health sites approved by **Health On the Net Foundation (HON)**, HON was created to promote the effective and reliable use of the new technologies for telemedicine in healthcare around the world. [|HON] 1271301791

//Lack of medical personnel and equipment:// The Kenya government is offerring packages that promote the idea of studying health and medical subjects. They reduced the study costs and expanded the size of the classes to allow more to fit into a single class. In 2005, AMREF introduced an e-learning programme aimed at scaling up the number of health workers in Africa as well as providing nurses with IT skills. 1270614342 Source: []

Red Cross donated 10,000 USD to provide equipment to produce artificial limbs for hospitals in Kenya. They also started a training program to teach medical students how to handle these limb with the patients. 1270614644 Source: []

Empower Tanzania is working with the locals to deliver 200 pieces of medical equipment that produce anti-bacterial substances, Tylenol and aspirin. New computerized technology has been brought in to manage these machines. 1270690086 Source: [|http://www.empowertz.org/health/]

theoretical solution where the doctors from the clinic, all travel to the main hospital for training, where the training will be conducted while using reliable sources form the internet access from the hospital. That way the nurses and doctors in the small clinics away from the hospital can slowly gain experience and knowledge how to treat and diagnose patients in their local clinics. 1271816965

__//**Solution to lack of doctors: Telemedicine**//__ > bring overall improvement of healthcare services by centralization and coordination of resources (specialists, > hardware and software packages). A small bus with appropriate medical diagnostic equipment and a doctor visiting rural areas on a regular basis could be one of the possible solutions. > • improved standard of medical practice > • improved epidemiological and > • educational benefits for doctors and medical staff outside the capital,continuous medical education Internet provides access to several available worldwide medical databases. [] 1271393687
 * Telemedicine links between hospitals and other medical institutions could
 * E-mail and Internet access for regional and rural health-care centers & small hospitals could be useful. The benefits from connecting as many hospitals and health-care centers as possible to a medical information system would be:
 * By connecting these primary-care centres and district hospitals via simple telemedicine links to provincial or Major hospitals, the quality of primary care will be improved due to the support from large hospitals

__**- Lacking in International Bandwidth**__ Many African countries seriously lack international Internet bandwidth and their national policies are helping the situation since their tend to protect the inefficient national telecommunications providers. The continent requires open market policies in the area of telecommunications to overcome some of the infrastructure limitations. Given the current impediments to adequate healthcare delivery, the need for developing telemedicine in Africa is evident, however technological solutions that are developed should be adapted to the African environment. This environment includes low telephone penetration in rural areas; inadequate and expensive national Internet bandwidth; lack of skilled manpower in this area, etc.

__Solution:__ Educate workers how to use the internet efficiently and not use up unnecessary bandwidth. Eg --> BOAU (Bandwidth Optimization for african universities) and organizationt hat spread awareness of the lack of bandwidth in africa in univerisities so student will know how to research effeciently. They research on stretegies to implement in universities so students have more reliable access to the internet which is important as they are already lacking in good libraries for research "The project’s chief objective is to help African universities better understand the bandwidth problem and implement strategies for more effective use of current Internet resources. Collaboration with training and Internet experts from a range of organizations helped create high-quality training materials that can be applied to local environments. The knowledge transfer that results could significantly improve bandwidth management and efficiency among several key groups: executive management, senior management, information intermediaries, and IT staff. The end result of this capacity-building will be faster, cheaper access for researchers and better information for university managers to negotiate effectively with bandwidth providers." http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-86474-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html 1271395148