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M-health faces regulatory hurdles

Tyson Ngubeni
By Tyson Ngubeni
Johannesburg, 01 Jul 2014
M-health programmes led by a partnership including GSMA will need strong ties with public healthcare systems in different countries.
M-health programmes led by a partnership including GSMA will need strong ties with public healthcare systems in different countries.

The GSM Association's (GSMA's) push to make mobile-health (m-health) solutions more prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa proposes viable solutions. However, analysts say it has some way to go before being fully integrated into public healthcare initiatives, as regulatory frameworks have yet to take shape in many regions.

The GSMA - which represents the interests of mobile operators around the world - yesterday announced an m-health programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to provide a range of health services using the capabilities of companies which form part of a new ecosystem.

The initiative brings together partners including MTN, Samsung, Mobilium, Gemalto, Hello Doctor, Lifesaver, Mobenzi and Omega Diagnostics to harness the companies' various expertise in order to create integrated solutions. Proposed solutions include interactive portals for people to communicate with healthcare professionals and access medical information databases.

Speaking at the partnership's announcement, Dr Craig Friedrichs, director of health at the GSMA, said the functions and capabilities of all companies on board - including manufacturing, and application development - would be crucial to create sustainable services in partnership with the public healthcare sector.

Adrian Schofield, ICT veteran, says governments would need to outline whether the solutions provided as part of m-health programmes will be subject to specific rules and regulations.

He adds that although the responsibility for citizen healthcare is placed in the hands of government, which is often criticised when things are not done properly, "it is inevitable that improvements will be driven by private sector as they have the desire to improve the health of the markets they serve". He adds that a healthy public is essentially a healthy market, which also caters to the private sector.

Not yet defined

A 2013 study, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, notes the relatively new phenomenon means many countries do not have clearly-defined regulatory frameworks for how services could be integrated into public healthcare.

"Regulatory support to facilitate the approval of devices and medical apps, and the development of an interoperability standard, is a key factor in gaining the trust and confidence of healthcare providers, patients and payers of m-health solutions," says the study.

It adds that regulators need to foster innovation without sacrificing safety, complementing data privacy and security rules in accordance to the laws of different countries.

In addition to ensuring solutions are in line with government's plans for healthcare, any foray into SA could need to comply with Protection of Personal Information Act, which regulates how organisations handle, store and secure personal information.

High time

Patrick Shields, chief technology officer at Software AG SA, says many Africans can afford to own cellphones sooner than they can afford to purchase PCs, which leads to mobility-driven innovations.

"In terms of governance, what drives the political engine and what drives service delivery is the ability to interact with citizens, and mobile presents opportunities that might not have been exploited yet," he says.

In its vision for the years leading up to 2055, the City of Tshwane has outlined its plans to create a smart city, enhancing connectivity in order to gradually shift towards greater reliance on e-governance. The city's ICT strategy has already started rolling out free WiFi at public institutions - a move aimed at creating a participatory citizenry.

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