An earlier segment of the Livecast involved a trio of speakers from the Ministries of Health of Cameroon and Senegal.
The officials explained the efforts being made by their countries to implement universal health coverage schemes, the success and challenges, as well as prospects for the future. They also explained how they are integrating technology into healthcare delivery, something that comes with many challenges.
In Senegal, an official from the health ministry, Ibrahima Dia, said about 18 million people are covered by the country’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme, corresponding to about 50.3 percent of the population. The ministry is integrating technology into the project to facilitate patient care and monitoring, ensure security and interoperability of information systems in the health and social protection sectors, and improve patient satisfaction and access.
Those efforts notwithstanding, certain challenges remain, and they include issues related to governance, data storage and protection, security, interoperability, regulations, concerns about the national digital ID system, and the issuance of a unique ID number to be linked to a patient’s profile.
The official also mentioned Senegal’s health system digitalization program running between 2023-2027, based on a government-run digital ID masterplan.
In terms of health insurance, Mouhamed Mahi Sy, information systems director of the universal health insurance agency of Senegal, explained that the country has been working towards having a fully digitized patient journey, which begins with the enrollment of beneficiaries, digitization of care records, digital patient file monitoring as well as interaction with providers.
This, he says, is being done progressively, beginning with a pilot that includes the integration of a health ID with a patient insurance ID and the linkage of these with the national digital ID and other systems.
In the case of Cameroon, Charles Yopndoi, an official of the ministry of public health, said since 2020, the country has been implementing its four-year National Strategic Plan for Digital Health which entails optimizing health care delivery through the use of digital technologies at different levels of the healthcare delivery chain.
According to Yopndoi, Cameroon has since April 2023 been implementing the first phase of its UHC scheme, which prioritizes digital access to health. To date, he said, about three million citizens have been enrolled for the program which offers important health care services for pregnant women, children aged 0-5 years, people living with HIV, tuberculosis patients, and haemodialysis patients. Enrollment for the scheme requires a national ID which has been a headache to obtain in the central African country for many years now.
Yopndoi agrees that in meeting the health digitisation goals set out in the government digital health plan, digital ID is particularly relevant as it can, among other things, ensure secure access to health data both for patients and for authorized health personnel; facilitate the identification of health providers, patients and other actors involved; as well as smoothen control of services provided.
For now, he says the government is working to strengthen the legal framework when it comes to the protection of personal data, improve the health information and data management system which collects data from 6,148 public and private health facilities, initiate the setting up of an interoperable framework for the sharing of birth and death data with the Integrated Civil Status Management System, and the pursue development of a digital patient file system.
The last two segments of the online event looked at the importance of authentication platforms and the use of biometrics in digital healthcare systems, and how health infrastructure mobilization can drive up civil registration.
In the fourth segment, Chris Fleming, a partner at Public Digital, delivered a presentation on the role of ID in the development of digital services in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The presentation, which projected the UK as good example to emulate for digital healthcare system management, demonstrated that a foundational ID is pertinent in rolling out an effective health ID.
Simprints Director of Partnerships Ejemhen Esangbedo later spoke about biometrics and how they can be used to unlock access to healthcare and inclusion, like the organization is helping to do in a number of countries including Ethiopia.