IT can 'transform public healthcare'

IT can be used to make healthcare as universal as possible, says Sanjay Dharwadker, head of health and ID business at Sagem Orga SA. It can transform existing public healthcare infrastructure into what people need.

Countries and regions tend to look at healthcare from different perspectives, depending not only on the socio-economic realities, but also political priorities and methodologies, he continues.

"In the mid-eighties, India launched the Immunisation Mission - certainly one of the more successful mass public-health campaigns, that continues to involve over 200 000 grass-root health workers and 60 000 healthcare centres, and annually targets close to 28 million newborn babies and their mothers in the country," says Dharwadker.

Many Asian countries have focused on ensuring minimum healthcare for all, according to Dharwadker, but South Africa has had relative success with a different method. South Africa has an excellent healthcare infrastructure and high quality of manpower and skills, but there is a perception that the benefits are not reaped by all, he says.

"However, the reluctance to incorporate IT is not special to the South African healthcare industry, and is often attributed to the way IT is needed to be implemented for the health professional, whose needs and practices are quite different from others," he says.

One of the key elements is an IT system that helps to achieve reach, and which provides decision-support at all levels, and specifically-addressed issues like gender empowerment, says Dharwadker.

"IT in Healthcare can also be used to integrate various kinds of service arrangements in the healthcare sector, and can take an integrated view of the preventive and treatment aspects. Lastly, it can empower the patient and the health worker as much as the specialist and the administrator," says Dharwadker.