Closing SA's healthcare data gap

Henry Adams, country manager for InterSystems South Africa.

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A patient in an underserved community may begin their care at a local clinic, be referred to a district hospital, have tests processed elsewhere and later need specialist treatment or follow-up in another province. At every handover, the next care team needs enough context to understand what has already happened and what should happen next.

In practice, that information does not always travel with the patient. Referral notes may be incomplete, laboratory results may sit in a separate system and medication or treatment histories may have to be reconstructed. Each gap adds delay and uncertainty to a health system already working under pressure.

South Africa’s healthcare landscape is deeply uneven. Statistics South Africa reported in March 2026 that 14.1% of the population had medical aid cover. Provincial differences were substantial, ranging from 23.8% in the Western Cape and 19.6% in Gauteng to 7.3% in Limpopo and 8.4% in Mpumalanga.

These figures do not tell the whole story of healthcare access, but they show how strongly location and income influence the options available to people. For many patients in rural areas and townships, care is delivered through public facilities serving communities across long distances, often with limited specialist access, workforce shortages and high demand.

When information is fragmented as well, continuity becomes harder to maintain. A clinician may have to decide without a complete patient history, earlier test results may not be available quickly and follow-up can weaken when referral information does not move cleanly between facilities.

Connected healthcare data can give care teams a more complete view of the patient across the journey. That may include clinical history, laboratory results, medication, referrals, consent and previous treatment, presented in a form that can be understood and used by the people responsible for care.

Interoperability makes this possible by allowing different systems to exchange information without stripping away meaning or context. It also supports more reliable patient identification, which is essential when records are created across multiple facilities or programmes.

South Africa is already moving in this direction. The National Department of Health’s 2026-2027 Annual Performance Plan describes electronic medical records as an enabler of care portability. It reports that the Health Patient Registration System had reached 3 266 health establishments by March 2025.

Building on that progress means connecting clinical and operational information across facilities, provinces and sectors in a way that is secure, governed and practical for daily use.

Connected data helps scarce resources work more effectively, even though it cannot create more clinicians, shorten every journey or resolve infrastructure constraints.

With the right information available, clinicians spend less time rebuilding patient histories, district hospitals receive clearer referral context and operational teams can see where demand, delays and service gaps are developing. That same visibility helps public health leaders understand patterns across facilities and communities.

In my work with healthcare organisations, I have seen how often people become the bridge between disconnected systems. They phone other facilities, search for results, re-enter information and rely on paper or spreadsheets to keep care moving. Better data sharing reduces that burden and gives healthcare workers more time and context for the decisions they face.

Most healthcare environments already rely on a mix of clinical, laboratory, pharmacy, administrative and reporting platforms. Connecting those investments through a trusted data and interoperability foundation allows information to move more consistently without forcing facilities to replace the systems they already use.

At InterSystems, the focus is on helping healthcare organisations bring information together, establish a longitudinal view of the patient and enable secure access for authorised care teams. The same architectural principle is reflected in international rural health transformation initiatives, where shared records and connected services complement existing clinical systems.

A person’s continuity of care should not weaken each time they cross a facility, district, provincial or sector boundary. South Africa’s access challenges are complex and will require sustained work across infrastructure, staffing, service design and technology. Connected healthcare data can preserve a stronger thread through the patient journey, giving care teams the context they need to coordinate services and make better use of limited resources.

For underserved communities, that can mean fewer information gaps at the moments when care changes hands. It can also help build a health system in which the patient’s story remains connected, even when the services around them are distributed.