
Fortune News | Jun 19,2021
Jul 13 , 2020
By Halima Abate (MD) ( Halima Abate (MD) is a public health professional with over a decade of experience. She can be reached at halimabate@gmail.com. )
The curve had seemed to be flattening, but the number of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases has recently been rising in various parts of the world, straining and outpacing the health system’s operations. This has been posing severe challenges to other essential services, but it is also shedding light on how to coordinate and execute actions to maintain essential non-COVID-19 related health service and mitigate the risk of the health system’s collapse.
The strain on the system is happening in more ways than one. The rapidly increasing demand on health facilities as a result of a growing number of COVID-19 patients threatens patients and health professionals with exposure to the virus, contributing to an unwillingness to visit health centres. It also attracts resources away from the delivery of other services.
There is thus the need to evolve healthcare delivery systems to adjust to the challenges brought on by COVID-19 to maintain access. With digital technologies undoing the way we produce goods and deliver services, the obvious answer seems tele-health.
It is a set of methods to enhance the provision of virtual health and health-related services through communication technologies. Digital health technology is increasingly being used to maximise and disseminate medical expertise, reduce the cost of health services and eliminate the disparities in access to health. The last part is pertinent in a country like Ethiopia, which has more people in rural areas than it does in cities where there are better road and health infrastructure.
There have been some attempts toward integrating health services with digital technologies in Ethiopia. There is, for instance, telemedicine - which includes telephone communications with patients but has been sparsely utilised as a result of challenges such as the lack of encouraging payment structures.
Despite the growth of the ICT sector over the past decade and the obvious fact that there have been ongoing efforts to exploit information technology, Ethiopia found itself 151th place on the index of the World Bank in 2016. There have been some attempts at laying the foundation for an e-health policy, but in the absence of a national tele-health policy or strategy, the implementation of delivering health services digitally will be hampered.
To ensure that this is realised, there needs to be a development of the basic ICT infrastructure to meet the requirements of not only larger traffic but also reaching citizens in far off places. This is the sort of infrastructure only the government is in place to provide and thus falls on its shoulders to ascertain that those in rural areas get adequate access to the internet.
Just as important is the development of a strong digital and data protection law in the aide of the regulation of these services. It will be hard to attract people to digital health technologies if they have the fear that their health data will not be adequately protected. This will require inter-ministerial collaboration between health and communications agencies.
The combination of broad access to the internet and the institution of tight regulation will be the most effective mechanism of addressing the challenges caused by COVID-19. It will encourage people to continue to seek healthcare even as hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients, access to health workers becomes scarce, and hospitals and clinics are grappling with exposure to the virus. It is not a complete answer, but it can be a major part of the solution.
Fortunately, there are many private players, including in the ICT sector, eager to participate in the fight against COVID-19. Stakeholder engagement and consultations can create conducive environments necessary for hammering out a multi-dimensional digital health framework that would maximise the benefits for the most vulnerable and realise sustainable socioeconomic progress.
PUBLISHED ON
Jul 13,2020 [ VOL
21 , NO
1055]
Fortune News | Jun 19,2021
View From Arada | May 18,2019
Life Matters | Jan 09,2021
Featured | Nov 23,2019
Covid-19 | Aug 08,2020
Editorial | Jun 07,2020
Radar | Nov 12,2022
Sponsored Contents | Jan 17,2022
Sunday with Eden | Jan 31,2021
Commentaries | Aug 16,2020
Photo Gallery | 66993 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 58766 Views | Apr 26,2019
Fortune News | 51767 Views | Jul 18,2020
Fortune News | 51423 Views | Sep 01,2021
Editorial | Mar 18,2023
Dec 24 , 2022
Biniam Mikru heads the department of cabinet affairs under Mayor Adanech Abiebie. But...
Jul 2 , 2022 . By RUTH TAYE
On a rainy afternoon last week, a coffee processing facility in the capital's Akaki-Qality District was abuzz with activ...
Nov 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
Nov 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
Mar 18 , 2023
Ethiopia's economy once hailed as a paragon of growth and development, now faces a co...
Mar 11 , 2023
Ethiopia is rapidly emerging as one of China's top African debtors, second only to An...
Mar 4 , 2023
Once again, Ethiopia has claimed international attention in the past few weeks for re...
Feb 25 , 2023
Millions of people in Ethiopia have continued to be deprived of access to information...
Mar 18 , 2023
Residents in the capital are all too familiar with the rationing of running water supply as the 0.48 million cubic meters of water pumped ou...
Mar 18 , 2023 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
Consumers in the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State feel the pinch of a high cost of living, exacerbated by...
Mar 18 , 2023 . By AKSAH ITALO
A Korean-based consultancy firm, DONG IL Engineering Consultants bagged the contract to conduct a detaile...
Mar 18 , 2023 . By AKSAH ITALO
Authorities raise the minimum price threshold for horticultural products on vegetables and fruits exporte...