Challenges of implementing Health IT on the African continent Essay

Challenges of implementing Health IT on the African continent - Essay Example While great strides have been made in managing the affairs of the continent by different countries in the continent, some have lagged behind in development, owing to the political instability and other natural forces such as the adverse climatic conditions and the environmental factors that poses a lot of challenge to the development of such countries. Consequently, the development of the African continent, especially in the field of health is far behind, compared to other continents of the world (Archangel, 2007). It is not unusual to find many people perishing from the very common and preventable diseases, which are non-existent in other continents, due to the inability of the African health systems to address such illnesses effectively (Edoho, 2011). Therefore, the health systems in the African continent highly require to be addressed. Nevertheless, there are major challenges that might face the implementation of the desired changes in the African health systems, especially regard ing the Health IT systems. Therefore, this discussion seeks to focus on the Challenges of implementing Health IT on the African continent, with a view to how such challenges can be overcome. Poor technological infrastructure, normally referred to as the digital divide, is one of the Challenges of implementing Health IT on the African continent (Khosrowpour, 2006).Technology in Africa is not only a challenge in the health sector, but in every other aspect of the technology application. By the year 2007, it was estimated that the access to technology was limited to a small percentage of the African continents population, including the telephone connectivity, the internet and the mobile phones accessibility. It was estimated that by then, only 1.5 in every 100 people had telephone connections in Africa (Edoho, 2011). The access to mobile phone subscriptions was estimated at 22.9% in every 100 people of the African population, while the level of internet accessibility was even lower, wi th the African continent having a meager internet accessibility of 3.7% for every 100 people of the African population. The African technological data is in sharp contrast with the global average technological data accessibility, where the internet accessibility, according to the global average was set at 20.6 for every 100 people globally (Edoho, 2011). The implementation of Health IT systems requires robust infrastructure, to ensure that data and information communication can easily be done by health professionals, health providers and other health institutions and agencies. The application of health IT systems is aimed at ensuring that the health information is gathered, stored, retrieved, analyzed and transmitted to the necessary information users, in the most timely manner (Archangel, 2007). However, all this cannot be achieved without a good infrastructural framework that allows for such gathering, storage, analysis and the transmission of the health information. The challenge with the African continent is that; it does not have a robust technological infrastructure, which would enhance the connectivity of the health systems and health facilities, thus enhancing transmission and sharing of information (Khosrowpour, 2006). Both satellite technology and the internet are limitedly developed in Africa, with only some countries managing to have access to such technology, though on a limited basis and restricted to the urban areas only. Considering the differences in