Introducing the Commonwealth PowerPoint Presentation

1

The Commonwealth 53 nations one community
2
ECOSOC Africa Regional Ministerial meeting on
e-health use of information and communication
technology for health10-11 June 2009Accra, Ghana

• A presentation by the Commonwealth Secretariat
• Addressing e-health policies and strategies in
  the Commonwealth
• by
• Dr Joseph Amuzu
• Adviser, Health Section
• Commonwealth Secretariat

3
Where are we?

• The May 2008 Commonwealth Health Ministers
  Meeting (CHMM) focused on e-health.
• An e-health survey results from the Commonwealth
  was presented at the meeting.

4
Challenges identified in the survey

• E-health initiatives varied widely
• Isolated e-health
• Change management
• The scale and time of implementation

• Financing e-health
• Technological challenges
• Ethical Challenges

5
Varied e-health initiatives

• Multiple examples of e-health in health manpower
  training, development of HIS
• Fewer examples for procurement/logistics,
  leadership training, clinical service delivery
• Initiatives not linked to coherent strategy,
  uncoordinated, donor supported, mainly with NGOs

6

• Change management
• E-health is additional work without
  remuneration
• We need to perceive technology as an additional
  tool to facilitate improved efficiency in the
  delivery of health care and not as a monster
  waiting to expose us
• The need for training for Ministry staff and
  service providers in computer literacy the
  design of new clinical and working practices
  user support and project management.
• A lot of technophobia among staff and senior
  officers.

7
Financing e-health

• Commonwealth countries report that the main
  financial challenges relate to equipment and
  telecommunications infrastructure
• Projects were financed by a mixture of public and
  donor funds.
• The benefits of e-health for developing countries
  are well known but the financial costs are not.
• Few case studies on the financial costs of
  e-health in developing countries.

8
Legal and ethical issues

• Predominant issue identified in survey was
  patient privacy and confidentiality of medical
  records
• There may be a trade off between improved quality
  and access versus the risk of reduced security
  and confidentiality
• Intellectual property rights between public and
  private sectors must be clarified

9
Lessons Learned

• E-health requires long term planning between
  Health, Finance and Technology Ministries/sectors
• Simpler technology often produces better results
• Financial sustainability can be a challenge for
  e-health
• ICT that reaches rural areas may contribute more
  to MDGs than urban interventions

10
The CHMM 2008 mandated the Commonwealth
Secretariat to work in e-health.

• The specific mandates were
• Convene high-level consultations involving
  Ministers of Health and Ministers with
  responsibility for ICTs
• Promote the exchange of e-health expertise
  between Commonwealth countries
• Seek funding to support interventions.

11
1. Ministerial Dialogues

• One Dialogue held for Ministers of Health
  Ministers responsible for ICT from the East,
  Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region.
• The aim was to
• Enable ministries for health and technology to
  share information and collaborate effectively
• Support health ministries in developing
  realistic, affordable e-health strategies and
  investment plans
• Expand e-health capacity and capabilities.

12
Outcomes of the Dialogue

• Ministers identified some issues of concern
• ICT and health policies and strategies
• e-legislation in the ECSA region
• e-health standards
• e-health infrastructure
• Capacity and the need for capacity-building in
  ICTs
• They requested reviews of these challenges
• They identified priority areas for action and
• Set up a technical working group on e-health

13
The priority actions

• Ministers requested the Commonwealth Secretariat
  and its partners to help
• countries develop their policies and strategies
• countries develop guidelines on equipment
  procurement and ICT sourcing strategy
• in designing tools for auditing existing health
  informatics and telemedicine training
• establish health sector-wide training programmes
  including leadership training on e-health and ICT

14
2. The technical working group

• The TWG included representatives from Uganda,
  Kenya, Mozambique, WHO/AFRO, AU and was supported
  by an expert from South Africa.
• The TWG was tasked to
• review the main approaches to e-health policies
  and strategies and
• to draft a framework for an assessment of the
  status of e-health in the region.

15
Results

• A methodology and templates for e-health policies
  and strategies developed
• A questionnaire for the assessment of the status
  of e-health developed
• It is a tool for auditing existing e-health
  infrastructure and capacity based on WHO and
  Bellagio frameworks.

16

• The methodology
• The methodology involves bringing together all
  stakeholders Ministries of Health, ICT and
  Finance, civil society, the private sector mainly
  telecom companies, doctors and nurses
  associations and development partners.
• The information from the templates proves to be
  useful in developing the policy and strategy.
• The Templates
• Is based on e-health Strategy Loop

17

• E-health Strategy Loop

18
Leadership Who are the leaders? Who should
they lead? What skills and knowledge do they
need?
19

• Change management
• Identify stakeholders needs
• Continuous stakeholder engagement
• Explain the changes, the new ways of working
  new competences
• use of technology
• changes in procurement models
• increase need for programme and project
  management
• more training
• It is a whole organisational culture change

20

• ICT possibilities

21
(No Transcript)
22
3. Collaboration with Kenya

• The methodology and templates for e-health
  policies and strategies were pretested by the
  Kenyan Ministry of Medical Services.
• A strategic planning workshop was held in Kenya,
  taking forward two key issues that arose from the
  Ministerial Dialogue.
• How to frame and develop an e-health policy and
  strategy for Kenya
• Scoping and delivering an e-health readiness
  review in Kenya.

23
Collaboration with ICT suppliers

• Cisco Systems is supporting the Commonwealth
  Secretariat with the Ministerial High-Level
  Dialogues.
•  The Health Section is also in discussion with
  Microsoft to identify collaborative work and
  funding support for the Secretariat eHealth
  programme.

24
The next steps

• Strengthen partnerships, working together with
  Ministries of Health ICT, International
  Organisations, AU, Regional Health Organisations,
  private sector and civil society.
• Initiate the cycle of work taking place in the
  ECSA region in West African and other regions of
  the Commonwealth
• Ministerial High Level Dialogues
• Support continental, regional and country
  e-health policy and strategy development
  processes
• Support country level stakeholder consultations
  using the Commonwealth e-health methodology and
  templates

25
Thank you
The Commonwealth 53 nations one community