During the workshop, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, partners from Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi shared their experiences in working with Information and Communication Technology in health (also known as E-health). In discussions the topic of staff turnover and how to deal with it came up. Mohamed Sangare, project leader of the IKON project in Mali that deals with sending x-ray scans and diagnosis via internet (teleradiology), shared that on average, medical staff stays at one location for about three to four years. To ensure there are always enough people available who are trained in telemedicine and who keep the project running, IKON starts training new staff every 1,5 years. Another way of preventing an exodus of people is by training staff that originates from the area where they will be stationed to work. These people are less likely to leave, according to Sangare.

Thinking 'simple'

Another useful experience shared was to keep it simple when setting up teleradiology; sending x-rays over the internet to other doctors for consultation does not require expensive scanners. A digital camera to take pictures of the x-ray and then send those will do just fine. The same goes for the medical specialism chosen: samples of cytology are somewhat complex to get an online consultation on, dermatology is simpler to do. If that works well, you can move on to a next level.

Although this advice may not be revolutionary, in practice they have proven their value. Solutions such as these are very useful to share with others. This is the reason that IICD hosts events where partners from different countries meet and share their experiences.

The people present at the South South Exchange in Tanzania got the opportunity to try out PDAs to collect patient data.

Wind power and much more

Apart from staff turnover, many other topics were discussed, for example back-up systems for Hospital Management Information Systems, energy solutions to cope with power outage, motivating people to work with ICT and how to stimulate ownership of projects. Godfrey Begumisa, system administrator from the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau, talked about how the project he works for uses solar energy to address the power outages. The participants from Malawi shared their experience with using wind power.

Ensuring patients' data privacy

Patient’s data privacy was another topic of mutual interest. Even though participants are enthusiastic about using digital tools in health, they are wary of the risk of sharing patient files. It is important to send certain data about the patients’ disease to use for statistical purposes (for instance to keep track of Malaria cases) but it is equally important not to send the names of the patients. This is an area that needs continuous monitoring and needs to be improved, as all participants agreed.

Visits to hospitals

Participants of the workshop also visited two hospitals in Tanzania that work with a Hospital Management Information System in order to manage the administrative, financial and clinical aspects of the hospital. Although the systems are not yet covering all these areas, health staff is convinced of the added value and prefer the system to the paper-based administration.

The South-South Exchange offered the participants an opportunity to share experiences, to network, to see E-health applications work in a real-life setting, and most of all recognise: we are all facing the same challenges.
But despite the hurdles encountered, everyone is convinced of one thing: ICT brings solutions and improvements to our health sector!