Digital technology is also crucial in collecting and analysing timely
data to improve the efficiency and quality of care delivered. FILE PHOTO
| NMG
One of the most talked about issues facing Kenya today is health care.
It
was clearly by design that President Uhuru Kenyatta included affordable
health care for all as one of the ‘Big Four’ agenda that will define
his second and final term in office.
It was no doubt
that the Kenya Private Sector Alliance found it befitting to convene the
Kenya Health Stakeholders Forum whose theme was Accelerating Progress
Towards Realisation of Universal Health Coverage in Kenya.
Today,
Kenya is acclaimed as a major technology hub that is competing with
other world renowned hubs, even earning Nairobi the new nickname, the
Silicon Savannah.
It is an obvious advantage that sits in plain sight which if taken up, can leapfrog the dream to achieve universal healthcare for all.
It is an obvious advantage that sits in plain sight which if taken up, can leapfrog the dream to achieve universal healthcare for all.
Kenya already has some of the best broadband coverage in Kenya
with upwards of 75 per cent of the population covered by mobile
broadband and fibre broadband is growing rapidly.
And
if it did, there would be a strong business case for extending that
broadband coverage to the rest of the population as quickly as possible.
Research shows that preventative healthcare saves up to fourteen times the amount that is spent on curative healthcare.
With
so much of the population young, Kenya can use a systematic and
nationwide approach to health promotion campaigns using digital
platforms: from SMS campaigns to apps to chat-based helplines to seed
out self-help information on healthcare.
With a
greater share of the health burden coming from non-communicable
diseases, which often face the elderly, digital information is a
low-cost way of providing information on how to keep healthy as well as
manage existing health issues.
After prevention, the health continuum starts with diagnosis and then treatment.
We
can use the existing health workforce more efficiently through remote
training and consultations, as well as remote diagnosis using
information from connected medical devices.
In fact,
with so many new forms of diagnosis possible using apps on smartphones,
or simple and cost-effective accessories that can be plugged into a
smartphone, there is no reason to delay using these latest technologies
to improve diagnosis.
Digital technology is also
crucial in collecting and analysing timely data to improve the
efficiency and quality of care delivered.
Beyond the
aforementioned low cost cloud-connected diagnostic devices and software
that already exist, broadband technologies can enable less fraud in
procurement or sale of health products and the supply chains that ensure
health products are kept cold and are always in stock.
Health
infrastructure also needs to be broadened to not just include
buildings, medical machines and beds, but also explicitly recognise the
need for IT and broadband infrastructure, which needs to be seen as
critically and fundamentally important as electricity and provided to
all health facilities.
We can make better use of
ongoing government investments in broadband infrastructure and then
invest in this reaching the remaining health facilities and patients not
yet covered.
ADAM LANE, Director, Public Affairs, Huawei Technologies.
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