MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION IN AFRICA & NEW CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING mHEALTH

1. MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION IN AFRICA & NEW CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING mHEALTH Prof. Dusan Soltes Faculty of Management, Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia

2. Motivation, problem area • The main motivation for this project and presentation has been to utilize results of the EU/IST/ICT projects under the 6 and 7FP for transfer of the how how to our partners from the African Union • As a problem area for this transfer of know how from the EU to the AU has been chosen the area of the e-Health as one of the key areas from the point of view of the sustainable development in general and e-Inclusion of all the population into an Information society also in the specific conditions of Africa

3. Research Objectives • The main research objective for this research project and also this presentation has been to utilize the ongoing “MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION” in Africa as the main and most suitable vehicle for transfer of the particular e-Health know how from the EU to our partners and their specific conditions for implementation of Africa. • In this respect especially the particular “MOBILE PHONE REVOLUTION” in Africa creates the best technical, communication, user friendly, accessibility, etc. conditions for such transfer as well as practical implementation

4. “Mobile phone revolution in Africa”

5. Research approach, Methodology • As far as the research approach and methodology is concerned they have been as follows: • - Pan-European survey in the e-Health as conducted under the EU/6FP/IST/iWebCare project covering altogether 25 EU member states • - analysis of the best practices of the EU member states regarding their national strategies in respect of their various approaches towards implementation of the Lisbon strategy in the area of e-Health • - comparative analysis of these best practices from the EU regarding their possible implementation in the specific conditions of the AU

6. Major Outcomes/Results • The main outcomes and results of our research regarding e-Health and recommended transfer of know how from the EU to the AU in the conditions of the ongoing “mobile phone revolution” in Africa are as follows: • - National e-Health care information portals • - e-Identification of patients • - e-Health records and documentation • - e-Medical prescriptions • - e-Tools & means for fight against fraud in the health care domain

7. e-Health care national information portals ·    -  General information about the particular ministry and its competencies, duties, organizational and other structures ·  -  Information for citizens and patients regarding their rights and possibilities for various kinds of health care services as a part of their fundamental human rights ·       - Information for medical professionals ·    - Legislative information on the national as well as AU levels ·     - International relations and/or projects, campaigns, movements, cross-border cooperation especially within the AU ·      -  Fact sheets and most frequently asked questions ·      -  Current issue like e.g. about A(H1N1)

8. e-Identification of patients AU Health care ID e-(mobile phone)card should contain the following information: • basic personal data including the date of birth, national ID number, citizenship • basic information regarding the particular health insurance policy • basic information and contact information regarding the particular insurance company especially through their web site so in the case of necessity any inquiry from anywhere could be made in this respect

9. e-Health medical records & documentation • WHO Medical Records Manual - A Guide for Developing Countries of the WHO defines various aspects of the EHR and divides their content into four major sections: • administrative which includes demographic and socio-economic data such as the name and identification of the patient, sex, date and place of birth, permanent address and medical record ID number • legal data including a signed consent for treatment by appointed doctors and authorization for releases of information • financial data relating payment fees for medical services as they wary quite substantially from a country to country • clinical data on the patient and his/her illnesses, treatments, medications, allergies, etc. that contains in e-form all results of the particular reports regarding e.g. haematology, histology, microbiology, blood pressure charts, ECGs, pulse and respiration charts, all diagnosis, operational reports, admission and discharge from hospital treatments, x-ray and other visualized reports, etc.

10. e-Medical prescriptions • patients do not need to visit doctors just for prescriptions • they are not exposed to potential infections related to their repeated visits to medical facilities, their doctors, etc. • they do not need to visit several pharmacies in order to get the particular medicine • e-prescriptions are free of any “unreadable” handwriting • e-prescription removes also any potential problems that some doctors are prescribing medication that do not corresponds to their specialization and/or to the diagnosis • e-prescription guaranties that the patient can get its medication in the place and in time that is known immediately before he/she would leave from the ambulance • it is saving the costs of prescription • e-prescription keep track of all prescriptions • with e-prescription is absolutely excluded any possibility that two or more different doctors would prescribe any contradictory medicines

11. e-Tools and means for fight against fraud in the health care • The health care domain is one of the most attractive areas for all kinds of fraud because of its specific urgency and importance for everybody • Health fraud represents from 30 up to 100 billion Euro within the total health care spending of over 1 trillion Euro in Europe only. • In Africa it is about ?! • EU funded iWebCare system on Integrated Web Services Platform for the Facilitation of Fraud Detection in Health Care e-Government Services. The system has been developed and then also successfully tested in two participating countries of the particular consortium viz. the UK and Greece and has finally been approved as a successfully completed EU funded project in year 2008 after three years of the joint work of the particular consortium and other partners. As such it is ready also for testing and potential transfer and implementation in the specific conditions of Africa

12. Conclusion and outlook • The main purpose of this presentation has been to present: • some potential sources of know how related to the e-health care domain as it has been accumulated within the EU • our ideas on the ways and means that could help in that transfer and subsequent implementation • new potential joint projects within the current EU/7FP/ICT under the framework of the IST Africa initiative on the basis of our previous successful projects as presented at our above web site at //erdc.fm.uniba.sk. • A need for an efficient cooperation and coordination between all main stakeholders i.e. the EU and its organs, ACP and the current 7FP/ICT, selected member states that have had the particular practical experiences in the e-health related and successfully implemented projects.. On the receiving end it is necessary to achieve an efficient cooperation of all main stakeholders of the AU, African Development Bank, UNDP and other relevant international organization being active in this important sector in Africa like e.g. WB, WHO, ICRC, Doctors without Frontiers, etc. And of course also with the mobile phone service providers

13. Final statement and contacts • Thank you! • Contact: dusan.soltes@fm.uniba.sk • //erdc.fm.uniba.sk • //www.fm.uniba.sk