Communication Networking: ICTs and health information in Africa

Ojo, Tokunbo

doi:10.1177/0266666906065549

Cited by 23 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…There are about 10 doctors per 100,000 people in Africa, compared to 549 doctors per 100,000 people in the U.S. [39]. This deficit of doctors makes it crucial to have efficient ways for medical personnel (including nurses and medical aid workers) to communicate with one another and to gain access to medical information that can be used as a diagnostic and teaching tool.…”

Section: Public Health and Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The infrastructure for Internet service in Sub-Saharan Africa remains unreliable and costly. In parts of Africa, Internet service can cost around $50 per month, while the annual salary is often less than $1,000 [39].…”

Section: Public Health and Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior studies and projects have focused on free access to journal databases and innovative technologies to facilitate discussion among medical personnel [28,30,39,41,52]. Such efforts have helped increase both scholarly and collegial communication among the global medical community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A synthesis of research on ICT adoption and use by medical professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Crow

Broussard

Dong

et al. 2012

Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT International Health Informatics Symposium

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Health care practitioners rely on access to relevant and up-to-date medical information in order to effectively treat their patients. One efficient, low-cost avenue for such information is online collections, but certain regions lack the information and communication technologies (ICT) necessary for widespread and reliable access to online resources. The characteristics of existing ICT infrastructure in many developing countries are not well understood. This research synthesis focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an area with low levels of ICT infrastructure. It presents a synthesis of statistical analyses and a review across disciplines of information published on the state of ICT and health information access in SSA. An overview of the existing knowledge allowed us to identify the salient features of this particular ICT environment, and informed the development of a survey for SSA healthcare professionals. The synthesis and preliminary results from our survey suggest that Internet connectivity remains highly unreliable in Sub-Saharan Africa and that mobile devices provide the most reliable technology for health care providers to carry out their work.

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Section: Public Health and Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Public Health and Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A synthesis of research on ICT adoption and use by medical professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Crow

Broussard

Dong

et al. 2012

Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT International Health Informatics Symposium

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In addition to these problems that affect the whole health system, specific impediments to health information provision for health staff arise because of the structural problems within the district health systems themselves, e.g., no librarians in place, frequent power failures, shortages of staff, poor information and communication infrastructure, lack of information technology skills, and inadequate budgets. These problems are not peculiar to Zambia and have been discussed by several authors (29)(30)(31)(32). In view of the inherent weaknesses existing within the Zambian health system, the following strategies are proposed as ways to improve access to health information for health workers at the district health system.…”

Section: Information Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Information Access and Provision for Health Workers at the District Level in Zambia

Kanyengo

Hoppenbrouwer²,

Ahmed

2009

Journal of Hospital Librarianship

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This article explores and proposes strategies that could facilitate access to health information to health workers at the district level in Zambia. Structural weaknesses exist within the Zambian district health system that make it difficult to implement an efficient and effective library and information service, so as to contribute to overall health delivery. There is no visible recognition of library and information services as a necessary component within the health care process, as evidenced by the lack of policies to support such work at the national, provincial, and district levels of the health system. Recognition of the contribution of library and information services to overall achievement of health goals is made. Finally, the article proposes some health information strategies that, if implemented at the district level of the health care system, could lead to improved health information delivery for health care workers.Comments and suggestions should be sent to the Column Editors: Grace A. Ajuwon

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“…Mobile phones have enabled participation in money transfer systems [2] such as the well-known M-Pesa application in Kenya [3, 19] for people living in regions with limited physical access to formal financial institutions. Mobile phones also offer great promise in improving the physical health of people in developing countries via a diversity of mhealth initiatives, ranging from reskilling healthcare professionals [20], to health education [2], to medical imaging [21]. For example, SIMpill is a mobile phone application that reminds patients to take medication [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile Phones and Mental Well-Being: Initial Evidence Suggesting the Importance of Staying Connected to Family in Rural, Remote Communities in Uganda

2017

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Due to the ubiquity of mobile phones around the globe, studies are beginning to analyze their influence on health. Prior work from developed countries highlights negative mental health outcomes related to overuse of mobile phones. However, there is little work on mental health impacts of mobile phone use or ownership in developing countries. This is an important gap to address because there are likely variations in mental health impacts of mobile phones between developing and developed countries, due to cultural nuances to phone use and distinct variations in financial models for obtaining mobile phone access in developing countries. To address this gap, this study analyzes survey data from 92 households in sparse, rural villages in Uganda to test two hypotheses about mobile phone ownership and mental health in a developing country context: (i) Mobile phone ownership is higher among more privileged groups, compared to less privileged groups (ie, wealth and ethnicity); and (ii) mobile phone ownership is positively associated with a culturally-relevant indicator of mental health, ‘feelings of peace’. Results indicate that households with mobile phones had higher levels of wealth on average, yet no significant differences were detected by ethnicity. As hypothesized, mobile phone ownership was associated with increased mental well-being for persons without family nearby (in the District) (p = 0.038) after adjusting for wealth, ethnicity and amount of land for crops and land for grazing. Mobile phone ownership was not significantly associated with increased mental well-being for persons with family nearby. These findings are consistent with studies of mobile phone use in other sub-Saharan African countries which find that phones are important tools for social connection and are thus beneficial for maintaining family ties. One might infer then that this increased feeling of mental well-being for persons located farther from family stems from the ability to maintain family connections. These findings are quite different from work in developed countries where mobile phone use is a source of technology-related stress or technostress.

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Communication Networking: ICTs and health information in Africa

Cited by 23 publications

References 18 publications

A synthesis of research on ICT adoption and use by medical professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa

A synthesis of research on ICT adoption and use by medical professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Strategies for Information Access and Provision for Health Workers at the District Level in Zambia

Mobile Phones and Mental Well-Being: Initial Evidence Suggesting the Importance of Staying Connected to Family in Rural, Remote Communities in Uganda

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