Technology is enabling delivery of effective healthcare in Morocco. In the healthcare space, advancements in research and the development and adoption of advanced technologies have allowed for a deeper understanding of human health – ultimately leading to increasingly effective ways to not only prevent, but also treat diseases. Certainly, in Africa there has been notable progress in this regard.
This adoption and integration is only set to grow – with the software, hardware and service market related to artificial intelligence in healthcare set to surpass $34 billion worldwide by 2025. “Microsoft has always believed that improving healthcare through technology requires working together through partnerships with organisations who hold expertise within the field and identifying the right team who hold a shared passion and insights.
This has enabled us to create a broad range of cloud-based tools and solutions that touch many aspects of the development and delivery of effective healthcare in Morocco,” says Hicham Iraqi Houssaini, country manager for Microsoft in Morocco.
Uncovering the bottlenecks and finding a solution
Delivering timely and meaningful care to these patients is of crucial importance, given the nature of the Houses of Life programme. Upon closer inspection, staff and volunteers realised that the legacy tools previously used were not effective enough in allowing the programme to run smoothly.
With Power BI, the team is able to pull data from multiple sources such as databases, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents – it has also made data tracking considerably easier for the foundation’s IT staff. The tool also visualises data in dashboards and easy-to-run reports, creating insights that are updated in real time.
“Before we had dashboards, we had to collect the data manually, on paper or with Excel files, and perform the calculations,” says Soumaya Fatemi, a computer science engineer with the foundation. “It took us so long. Now, our dashboards are updated daily, and we don’t have to waste time summarising data. The dashboard does it for us.”
Real insights mean patients benefit the most
Through the use of the Power BI solution, staff at Lalla Salma have been able to identify further hidden issues in procedures that had hindered patient care protocol. Detailed insight into the types of medications the centres use and need has enabled staff to fine-tune delivery and stocking – providing actionable lessons that have helped bring life-saving drugs to patients more quickly.
“With this tool, we are able to know in detail the actual consumption of drugs by cancer type and by therapeutic protocol,” says Fakhkhari. “We are able to rationalise budgets, plan drug orders, and better manage our stocks and resources, therefore treating more patients.”