Transforming Healthcare using e-Health

The world is rapidly digitizing and almost every industry is going electronic; e-Commerce, e-Procurement, e-Banking, e-Accounting…etc. The Healthcare industry has not been left behind.

e-Health is the use of Information Technology & Communication to advance health delivery services. This relatively new term is catching up like wild fire particularly when the developing countries are target and priority.

As a developing nation, we cannot ignore this new phenomenon that is bound to raise the stakes in the delivery of our health care services.

e-Health is many things; it is accessing electronic clinical information at a click of a button, it is being able to refer a patient to another
These include:

• An Integrated Hospital Management Information System that will simplify the process of managing a hospital. It streamlines operations, enhances administration and control, improves response to patient care, heightens cost control, and improves profitability for an effective service delivery.

• An e-Referral system that is designed to ease information sharing thereby reducing pressure in our referral centers and encourage hospitals to have a scheduled and coordinated referral system

• A Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) that aims to efficiently manage the supply of drugs & supplies to health facilities at the same time improving the emergency response and monitoring.

• m-Health,( solutions that run on mobile devices) promote faster and far reaching sharing of health information between health professionals and the public. They are also cost effective in tracking epidemic and outbreaks. They can also be used to send health messages to target groups and in collecting health data in remote areas

The ability to have control over one’s health through technology is empowering. And the ability for a doctor and his hospital to offer efficient services to the satisfaction of his patient is quite encouraging. Stakes are high for our Kenyan hospitals to reform and conform,