TZW
The workshop that begins next Tuesday comprises a ministerial conference and international trade exhibition to foster telemedicine services. The Executive Secretary of The East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), Ms Gertrude Ngabirano, has said that the event to take place in Kigali, Rwanda, is organised by EASTECO in partnership with the University of Rwanda.
It goes with the theme; ‘Harnessing Science, Technology and Innovation to transform Healthcare delivery and accelerate attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in East Africa’ Ms Ngabirano said that as member countries started implementing SDGs targets, there is an opportunity to build on the momentum and political commitments to ensure health services become accessible to all people.
“To avoid repeating the mistakes of the last MDGs, there is need to do things differently in post-MDGs so as to sustain progress in those countries doing well, and accelerate progress in those countries doing poorly.
Collectively, the EAC Partner States have extensive experiences in addressing health challenges,” said the secretary. She noted that the EAC is seeking to improve its healthcare delivery systems, using the newfound e-health and informatics initiatives.
The expansion and integration of e-health systems throughout the EAC will offer substantial and growing opportunities with internal and external collaborators that specialise in e-health solutions and ICT infrastructure and create an enabling environment for e- health solutions in EAC.
The workshop has invited stakeholders from public and private sectors, academicians, ministers of health and ministers responsible for ICTs. The conference will tap into and leverage the experiences in line with the mission of the EAC to improve coordination and cooperation among Partner States.
“The workshop will introduce EAC public and private sector decision makers to solutions that will enable the improvement of healthcare infrastructure and delivery through the use of ICTs.
Participation in the workshop will include EAC member country decision makers, EAC e-health public and private organisations, development partners and ICT industry from the EAC and beyond,” she said.
There is going to be a high level dialogue with different stakeholders on how technology could enhance healthcare delivery, brainstorm on the issue of ICT regulations especially those related to e-health and how to enhance usage of e-health platforms in East Africa and what should be done to improve and strengthen the healthcare infrastructure of e-health and ICT in general.
The agenda of the conference focuses on the policies, technologies and financial schemes that will advance e-health among and between the EAC partner states to achieve some objectives. The said objectives, according to the Executive Secretary, are to review and share experiences on the progress made by EAC Partner States in using e-health initiatives to attain the SDGs, specifically health related.
The experts will also discuss appropriate enabling environment for e-healthcare, including policies, governance mechanisms and institutional capacity regionally and on national level in general and in particular the standardisation of e-health systems, data protection and privacy regime for e- health.
It is also set to deliberate on sustainable financing of e-healthcare projects and implementing self-sustaining tele-health services, strategise on accelerating and broadening access to health systems through technology and infrastructure.