IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The report* predicts that the worldwide telehealth and telemedicine market will experience a boom in growth over the next few years as technology continues to expand, both in terms of number of applications and availability.

The Philippines Department of Health, Tarlac Provincial Health Office and Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), through its Wireless Reach™ initiative, today announced the successful completion of the Wireless Access for Health project's pilot phase. The project participants leveraged their expertise and resources in public health, medical care, technology and training to create an electronic health record system that meets the needs of health care decision makers on varying levels, ranging from midwives to doctors to policy makers. Results at the conclusion of the pilot phase, which recorded over 12,000 patient consultations, indicate that such a system is not only feasible and improves patient care in rural health clinics, but also has a real impact for decision makers.

Today almost one quarter of all Americans, 73 million patients, are covered under a managed care health insurance program. This is up from 58 million patients in 2005, a 26 percent increase in just 6 years.

Odense University Hospital is working to build a videoconferencing network on Denmark's existing healthcare IT infrastructure, which includes fully integrated EHR, ePrescribing, RIS and PACS, all on secure Internet protocols.

The aim of the project is to respond to closing hospitals and declining resources while offering an alternative to the traditional hospital visitation model.

Erhebliche Umsatzsteigerungen prognostiziert eine neue Analyse von Frost und Sullivan dem Europamarkt für WLANs (Wireless Local Area Network) in Krankenhäusern. So sollen die Erlöse mit WLAN-Infrastruktur-Technologien für Kliniken von 12,29 Millionen US-Dollar in 2001 auf 92,27 Millionen US-Dollar im Jahr 2007 anwachsen. Als Hauptwachstumsmotor gilt das Potenzial von WLANs zur Produktivitäts- und Mobilitätssteigerung.

At any registered point of care, clinicians will have full access to up-to-date patient e-health records for reviewing medications patients are on, allergies they may be having, results of recent investigations, etc. This will help clinicians to make appropriate diagnosis and make their decisions efficiently, safely and promptly. The implementation of the e-Referral Engine is progressing well. It aims to facilitate patients' referral from one level of care to another and from one healthcare facility to another.

M-health works in Africa for two reasons. The people, and the widely spread African diaspora across the world, are already adept at using mobile phones for social and financial transactions. Also, the technological concept gets to start from the best place you can possibly imagine: from the bottom up.

In the context of the $6 trillion global health market health information technology and management systems is relatively small at less than 2 percent, according to the report, Advancing Global Health IT: A Consultation with the World Bank at HIMSS12. But at its current 10 percent growth rate, it is expected to increase $250 billion in 2015.

This is no longer a public health wish-list: it is reality (check out examples of each at Operation ASHA and Jacaranda Health). And yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released their May 2012 Bulletin chronicling many such innovations in global health, under the theme of "eHealth".

“This is a very capable and yet cost-effective microscope, shrunk into a very small package and weighing only 46 grams,” said inventor Aydogan Ozcan from the University of California, Los Angeles.

InMedica's 2013 forecast is significantly higher than the telehealth growth rates seen in recent years. From 2010 to 2011, the firm's research found that telehealth usage worldwide increased by 22.2 percent. However, telehealth device revenues only grew by 5 percent over that same time span; they grew 18 percent from 2011 to 2012. InMedica attributed the slow revenue growth over the last year to "poor economic conditions leading to restrictions in healthcare funding particularly in Europe, and ambiguity on the impact of healthcare reform and readmission penalties on telehealth in the U.S."

By applying a framework adapted from reviewing sustainable information and communication technology (ICT), the qualitative study reviewed the benefits and challenges of mHealth in community-based services (CBS) in South Africa through a combination of key informant interviews, site visits to local projects and document reviews. The study's four key areas of assessment included government stewardship and the organizational, technological and financial systems involved.

The City of Johannesburg is set to digitise patient records through an e-health solution to be rolled out in the coming year.

This is according to executive mayor Mpho Phalatse, who outlined plans to use digital technologies in anchoring service delivery during her State of the City Address last week.

The City of Johannesburg (COJ) will spend R21.5 million on the implementation of its e-health system.

So says executive mayor Mpho Phalatse, marking the coming into effect of the multi-party government’s R77.3 billion budget for the 2022/23 financial year.

While the COJ announced budget plans for the city at the end of May, it’s only now that budget funds may officially start to be utilised for various projects.

E-health accelerator Digital Health Cape Town (DHCT) has opened applications for its first programme, designed to help high growth, high social impact businesses in the health space succeed.

The accelerator has been launched in response to the changing needs of healthcare providers and patients, in a bid to digitally transform the sector by assisting early-stage, innovative digital health companies.

Imagine you're a two-day trip away from the nearest doctor and are starting to experience flu-like symptoms, but you're unsure if it's malaria, swine flu or merely a common cold.

Why not just SMS a doctor and be diagnosed over the phone?

By March, you'll be able to do just that.

Telemedicine, as long-distance diagnosing, teaching and monitoring is known, will soon be introduced across the country, said executives of MTN and Sanlam, who have teamed up to develop and launch the technology.

The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Health and Social Development is moving swiftly towards providing sustainable service delivery and becoming a smart city with the rolling out of the new e-Health programme. It is a major technological advancement that allows the City to be part of new developments and to keep up with changes in the time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will accelerate the quality of primary care services delivered by the City.

According to Bheki Sibeko, the Director of Integrated Policy Planning & Research Unit, the new e-Health programme’s benefits will be endless for both residents and City employees working within the health space.