Future+Developments

=**Future Developments**=

- Funding
= One of the greatest issues that are applied here is the lack of funding. These future developments are assuming that funding has been provided =

- Giving local staff the proper education or training on already existing IT systems
Given the proper time and programs, the quality and benchmark of all employees on site will be raised with the right training on how to use the equipment provided.

- Provision of relevant IT to reduce the need for expensive travel and accommodations costs
Dr. Ogola will need to find methods in which he can use to help a patient who will need to be transferred to a local hospital. With proper medical equipment and sufficient communication between clinics (computers with internet access, instant messengers, email, etc.), patients may no longer need to travel to larger, better clinics to be treated properly.

- Distribution of cellular phones
All employees would be equipped with a cell phone so they may be contacted at any given time during work. It should be kept in mind though that it takes time for the proper technology (i.e. cell phone signals & communications towers) to be developed and implemented. - Cellphones for HIV is a project of Cell-Life which uses mobile technology to strengthen the HIV sector. In South Africa there are approximately 36 million active cellphone users, and around 80% of all youth and adults have a cellphone. This project will explore how a range of cellphone services can provide information and communication services that are useful to people infected or affected by HIV. //The project will work in many areas of HIV:// [] 1271564034
 * Mass messaging for prevention;
 * Mass information for positive living;
 * Linking patients and clinics;
 * Peer-peer support and counselling;
 * Building organisational capacity of HIV-related organisations;
 * Monitoring and evaluation.

FUN FACT: Africa is the world fastest frowing cellular market, with over 400 million mobile phones in use. 1273129104

- Provision of access to the internet
While providing internet access is vital for the doctors within the African village, it can also harm their success, as some information on the internet may  be misleading. One of the most useful tools out in the IT world would be Expert Systems or Computer Diagnostic Tools.

- Expert Systems: Expert systems are computerized tools designed to enhance the quality and availability of knowledge required by decision makers in a wide range of industries. They augment conventional programs such as databases, word processors, and spreadsheet analysis. []

- While any conventional programming language can be used to build a knowledge base, the expert system shell simplifies the process of creating a knowledge base. It is the shell that actually processes the information entered by a user; relates it to the concepts contained in the knowledge base; and provides an assessment or solution for a particular problem. Thus, an expert system shell provides a layer between the user interface and computer operating system to manage the input and output of data. It also manipulates the information provided by the user in conjunction with the knowledge base to arrive at a particular conclusion. The structure of the shell is very similar to that of an interpreter or a front-end to a database program. The shell also manages the user interface, performing functions that range from the validation of numeric values entered on the screen to management of the mouse and the representation of graphical objects. - The main purpose of the knowledge base is to provide the guts of the expert system--the connections between ideas, concepts, and statistical probabilities that allow the reasoning part of the system to perform an accurate evaluation of a potential problem. Knowledge bases are traditionally described as large systems of "if then" statements, but this description is misleading because knowledge bases may not contain definitive rules at all, but may contain only associative relationships among different concepts, statistical information about the probability of certain solutions, or simply large databases of facts that can be compared to one another based on simple conventions intrinsic to the expert system.  - Expert systems are used in medicine to train the medical students on various medical tasks. Medical expert systems are also useful in certain situations where either the case is quite complex or there is no medical experts readily available for patients. From the very beginning the main obstacle of using expert systems in medicine has been the accuracy of such systems. The field of medicine is such a complex and sophisticated one that safety is always a major issue. But still such systems provide support in places where there is shortage of medical experts. []

**- Creation of an electronic medical record** A server may be introduced as a central database for all local clinics to connect to, as well as store data on individual patients. With this implemented, it is easy for doctors to access a patient's record from any local clinic connected to the server.

this would allow them to plot out any patterns in the types of sicknesses that people get over the year, hence once noticing the pattern they can make provisions to stocking up on specific medicines prior to a time when a lot of people get sick with a specific sickness 1271817222

- Formulation of a disaster recovery plan
In the case of a natural disaster, data may need to be backed up to a secure location. Medical records may be uploaded and stored in an online database, such as websites and online storage spaces, where they are secure from any natural disaster.

- Secure equipment
Anti-virus programs and firewalls may be implemented on computers to ensure all medical records and data are secure. In addition, a security staff may need to be hired to ensure no equipment is stolen or lost.