South Asian countries identify way forward for their e-health strategies

E-health – the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to deliver health care – was the focus of a recent meeting in Sri Lanka attended by senior government officials of Health, Science, ICT and tele-health from South Asia.

Between 13 and 14 September, 26 representatives from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka shared information on their respective e-health strategies and identified areas of priority in the region.

These identified areas include: dealing with large-scale e-health development and working with ten-year development time scales.

Other priorities are developing broadband and internet capacity and capability; developing uniform software for Commonwealth countries; and involving doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care workers and communities in the use of e-health.

“ICT will pave the way for electronic health records, telemedicine, remote monitoring and much more,” said Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena, speaking at the opening of the meeting. “When implemented these technologies will dramatically cut costs and help to reduce the ever increasing health care budget. It is also a tool for improving the quality of health care.”

At the end of the two days, participants had shared information about the existing e-health projects going on at country and regional levels; identified gaps and potential shortfalls - such as financial resources and political commitment - in each country’s e-health policies, strategies and projects; and established concrete solutions to address the key e-health challenges.

These solutions include:

- Reconvening, in order to keep sharing experiences, successes and issues;

- Using new knowledge to develop e-health policies, strategies and plans;

- Introducing cross-country technical support.

Throughout the meeting country representatives also shared success stories. In Bangladesh, for instance, by 2021 the country will have created a national broadband network that meets the needs of all types of internet users, and in Pakistan, there is extensive and expanding investment in place for optic fibre cable and broadband supporting telemedicine initiatives.

This meeting was organised by the Social Transformation Programmes Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat and facilitated by Dr Sylvia Anie, the Division’s Director, and Dr Joseph Amuzu, Acting Head of Health.

“The Commonwealth supports the use of e-health to strengthen health systems,” said Dr Anie, in her opening statement. “E-health offers the potential to help us achieve radical change and improvements in how we strategically design, implement, manage and monitor health systems through improved access to quality services and increased productivity.”

Key Links:

• Our work: e-health
• Country Profile: Sri Lanka