But this traditional model is changing, incorporating such new technologies as M-health.
M-health can broadly be defined as the use of mobile technology to deliver medical services. There already exist medical platforms that have allowed for patient data to be accessed remotely via online channels and the provision of a mobile interface provides that last mile that empowers practitioners and patients access much needed information far from hospitals.
There are a number of areas being explored, the first being regular day-to-day monitoring and streamlining. This sees doctors use mobile more heavily to book appointments, post patient reminders on drug usage and doses, as well as keep a tab on their schedules while on the go.
While this may sound basic, it is a starting point that will see increased adoption of mobile centric services. Platforms such as Medic Mobile have a growing community of users who are contributing to the open source project that has a patients records system and information collection and dissemination modules.
As Medic Mobile puts it “ these tools support community health worker coordination and management, community mobilisation for vaccination and satellite clinics, logistics and supply chain management, referrals, routine data collection, and mapping of health services”.
Telemedicine is also touted as a game changer, more so in areas where access to specialised personnel is difficult.
As the cost of connectivity drops and fibre networks get deployed countrywide, I believe we will see more remotely done medical procedures, assessments, virtual meet ups and collaborations.
There is a lot of activity on the medical devices front, with a lot of innovation happening to try create portable gadgets. Organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are spearheading this by way of grants to create devices that can be used to diagnose illnesses or carry out comprehensive tests on samples out in the field.
At a personal level, m-health is taking the form of mobile applications and interactive mobile sites that empower one to reach personal health goals by keeping track of a diet plan or fitness regimen.
Specialist directories are also available, and these allow one to quickly and easily locate licensed practitioners, removing the stresses and strains of clinic hopping.
While a lot remains to be done along the lines of secure messaging, standard electronic medical records, crafting of both consumer and practitioner based m-health experiences, the future looks bright for m-health, and it is one of those utilities that will gain mass adoption if rolled out right.
Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic.
Source: Daily Nation(Kenya)