The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Researchers in the health sector have expressed concern that several healthcare providers and doctors lack awareness about the Uganda Health Information and Digital Strategic Plan.
In May, the health ministry launched the new Uganda Health Information and Digital Health Strategic Plan 2020-2025 aimed at further strengthening the health information ecosystem in the country by promoting the responsible use of digital tools to document and share patient data.
The plan also addresses late reporting in health facilities across the country, institutionalizes the use of patient-level digital systems at the point of care, and provides a blueprint for digital health implementation, research, and innovation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health interventions.
Irene Wanyana a Research Associate from Makerere University School of Public Health revealed that while coordinating the course she noticed that there is a big gap between digital technology and healthcare providers.
Wanyana noted that doctors still want the physical interface when diagnosing a patient something which can be done by a machine for some health complications. She added that according to her interaction with the healthcare providers due to a lack of awareness, some think that the innovations in the health sector will render them jobless rather than reduce their burden.
According to Wanyana, there is a need to localize some of the innovations so that they can be put in the best places where they can have value and perform better to avoid wastage and misallocation of government resources.
She also noted that the government should collaborate with other implementers and the private sector to educate them on the operation of the system.
Paul Mbaka, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of information management at the Ministry of Health said that the digital tools are being rolled out by the ministry across health facilities to act as job aids to the health workers and help in the surveillance efforts of some of the diseases in the country.
Dr. Sliver Kiyimba, the Principal Investigator at the Integrated Health Information Management System Technologies said that the innovation is aimed at improving service delivery in the health sector by tracking the performance of each sector of health and giving feedback to the government for proper planning.
Dr. Kiyimba also noted that the system can also be used to monitor the performance and attendance of health workers and also capture the details of the patient using a national ID card to reduce on patient’s backlog and speed up service delivery.
****
URN
