Technology a solution in part to South Africa’s many health hurdles

As technology continues to alter the way society and businesses operate, there is also a need to augment health services.

In 2005, the World Health Assembly, through resolution WHA58.28 on e-health, championed the move towards e-health services. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) were seen as a catalyst for health. In other words, health practitioners could use these technologies to treat patients, pursue research, teach medical students and investigate diseases.

However, questions remained regarding the importance of the knowledge and related practices gleaned following the use of ICTs. This arose in anticipation of what has come  to be known as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), that is, the merging of certain digital, physical and biological connotations.

The WHO began an investigation looking at the effect of these digital technologies on health. Flowing from this was resolution WHA71.7 on digital health, which the World Health Assembly passed in 2018.

ICTs assumed a new role as a tool to accelerate human progress, bridge the gap between rich and poor and amplify knowledge societies (2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 2015).

The idea of digital health is not intended to replace a medical practitioner, but to supplement the existing knowledge a practitioner possesses.

Accordingly, it promotes the use of technologies to discern, comprehend and interpret patients’ information in a manner that assists in arriving at a proper diagnosis. As convincing as the move to digital health is, indecisiveness, vagueness and uncertainty continue, however, to pose big setbacks to digital health services in South Africa.

Indeed, there are other factors  such as inequality and prejudice that affect digital health services. However, the prevailing view is that social standing and geographical locations should not determine the health care services offered or to be offered to patients.

Chronic staff and equipment shortages; an oncology crisis; consumable and medical shortages; medical negligence; improper medical infrastructure; and lack of or insufficient medical transport all contribute to the disconsolate picture of the South African health system.

In some rural parts of the country, patients travel long hours, normally on foot, due to a lack of proper road infrastructure, before receiving medical treatment.

Bearing in mind all these shortcomings it is pertinent to ask if SA is “e-ready” to take advantage of the benefits of digital technologies in addressing some of its health challenges.

It is important to ask this question as about 41.7 million of our population still rely on  public health services.

There are movements, elsewhere, to promote the use and reliance on ICTs. One example is the establishment of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in 2019. The idea for this commission is to embrace the benefits of 4IR and control the setbacks emanating from them.

To what extent is SA expected to do all of this? Specifically, how far are digital technologies used or to be used in SA for the treatment of patients?

Rwanda and Tanzania, for example, rely on digital technologies to offer digital health or provide patients with suitable digital health services. The process starts with developing a medical app online. As soon as the app is functional, patients’ information is loaded to the app.

Thereafter, AI technology makes a diagnosis based on the captured information. Simply, the technology connects the medical personnel, caregiver and clinical researcher to the digital app. Because of this, it is possible to track the location of patients, and record their collected and transmitted health information.

The only significant step to digital health in SA is the “National Digital Health Strategy for South Africa: 2019-2024”. The strategy follows the broad wording on health contained in the National Development Plan 2030, which speaks to the provision of a “long and healthy life for all South Africans”.

It provides that “SA has fully embraced the potential of digital technologies to improve the quality and coverage of health care, increase access to services and skills, and promote positive changes in health behaviours ...”

However, the question is how exactly will this be achieved? Instead of providing a plausible answer to this question, the strategy reiterates the need to guarantee a long and healthy life for all South Africans.

The challenge in SA is that about 80% of the rural networks are gravel roads. Cumulatively, rural roads add up to 301,000km and  63,000km surfaced are roads. Due to the poor road network, health delivery is negatively affected, resulting in preventable deaths in some rural areas.

The same roads have led to some accidents as well. According to the WHO, SA has about 25.9 fatalities for every 100,000 people on the road compared with Europe (9.3 for every 100,000).

In their article Cally Ardington, Murray Leibbrandt, and Zoë McLaren suggest the distance patients travel or have to travel is decisive in determining the accessibility of health services.

They conclude that distance constrains patients’ choice in seeking health services. Due to such challenges migration to digital technologies  would be an answer for our health hurdles.

South Africa must become e-ready to take advantage of digital technologies to provide suitable and swift health services.

 Mzukisi Njotini is  an associate professor at the University of Johannesburg. He writes in his personal capacity.