Sustainable locally driven growth of health informatics & mHealth in Botswana
Main beneficiary country:Botswana
Botswana-UPenn Partnership
Sector: Organizational: Communities, public authorities, NGOs, associations, foundations, etc.
Country of origin: United States
Healthcare themes targeted
Stage of development:
Area where initiative is utilised
Initiative start date
Financing method
Economic model(s)
Lack of health informatics training locally Lack of specialists in the country Need for triage of difficult cases to referral hospitals Need to optimize technology resources in health care
Patients can get to the needed specialist faster, with less time off work, less morbidity while waiting for an appointment. Patients that may never have gotten care will be funneled appropriately to the correct care for little cost leading to more efficient care.
Carrie Kovarik, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania launched the BUP teledermatology program in 2007, which has expanded into a broad telemedicine program that seeks to circumnavigate the challenging IT infrastructure in the region and a severe shortage of healthcare workers, particularly specialists. This program is led in-country by director Ryan Littman-Quinn and has focused on capacity building and sustainable growth of telemedicine and health IT through: Awareness and Policy Advocacy, Pre-Service & In-Service Training, and mHealth.
Health professional training - Telemedicine (remote diagnosis and consultations) - Information, education and communication for behaviour change (IEC)
20000 Number of beneficiaries since launch
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
auto-evaluated or evaluated by a related organization
Academic entities: Universities, research laboratories, etc.
Organizational: Communities, public authorities, NGOs, associations, foundations, etc.
eHEALTH APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN
How does one compete for the Observatory Awards ?
The project sponsors can apply to compete for the Observatory Awards: http://www.odess.io/suggest-an-initiative.html
An expert panel will study the submitted projects and winners will be invited to the 2020 Conference, at the Fondation Pierre Fabre’s headquarters (Lavaur, France), to accept their prize.
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