IICD’s health projects are principally aimed at improving the health of populations in small urban centres and remote rural areas through ICT. It is predominantly in these areas, where a vicious circle of poor health, inequality and social exclusion prevent people from participating in other aspects of society that can improve their quality of life. Improving health in the community, rural access to resources and the qualitative improvement of basic medical services that are needed to tackle these adverse conditions, are central to IICD’s health programmes. Across five of its country programmes, IICD is currently supporting 24 projects in the health sector. We are reaching around 55,000 medical workers, of whom 67% are women and approximately 830,000 beneficiaries, 82% of whom are located in rural areas.

Reducing an unhealthy distance

The starting point of our health programmes is the improvement of healthcare services using ICT. Improving information channels in rural communities can have an enormous impact on diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, diarrhoea and water-related illnesses, all of which are continuing to have a devastating impact upon the health of the rural populations in developing countries. In addition, by improving information flows the projects we are supporting are helping to provide communities with information on issues such as family planning, prenatal and maternal care.

Aside from empowering remote individuals and communities in this way, it is also crucial to then provide a connection to knowledge and expert diagnoses. In Mali, for example, there are 11 radiologists, of which only one works outside of the capital, Bamako, serving a population of 15 million, spread across an area the thirty times the size of The Netherlands (population 17 million).

IICD has been helping to tackle these realities in several ways, most of which have already shown to have a direct impact on the quality of health amongst rural populations. One way has been through peer-to-peer exchange among health professionals; connecting isolated doctors to normally hardto- reach expertise in larger urban centres. The other has been through Continuing Medical Education (CME), which can motivate and equip health workers with the knowledge they need and thus tackle the human resource shortage in the rural health sector.

Underpinning these efforts, there is also a need to address issues of inaccurate, missing, or unavailable information. Hindering numerous locally developed health initiatives is an inability to capture, store manage and access accurate health information and patient records. Developing an information system that can accurately capture information on, for example, reliable blood donors can simultaneously improve the level of repeat blood donors - something identified by the WHO as a key strategy to ensuring blood safety – and improve communication and coordination between hospitals that require large quantities of donor blood.

Targeting health

All IICD’s sector programmes, at project level, are focused on one of three key goals. Firstly, improving the competences of the medical worker: or health practitioner. In practice, this can mean through ongoing training or access to specialized expertise and knowledge. Secondly, improving the quality of the medical product or service. Improving the tools with which data and information is stored, accessed, collected and disseminated has been proven to have an enormous impact on the quality of healthcare service delivery. Lastly, improving efficiency in order to free up the health worker, enabling them to focus on their primary task.