Electronic Medical Records in Sub Saharan Africa
The use of electronic health records (EHR) can enable for accurate and up-to-date patient data management as well as improved efficiency in patient treatment. With current and easily accessible health information, physicians and health workers can reduce the amount of prescription errors, access patient data remotely, and communicate together effectively to provide quality care for every patient. In Sub Saharan Africa, the use of EHR has been facilitated by the increased availability of computers, mobile phones, and internet access, and it has shown to be beneficial in optimizing care.
Despite all the potential benefits of this technology, implementation of EHR is concentrated in urban centers, and is lacking in rural health facilities where a majority of the population lives. Barriers to adoption in rural areas include lack of funds, shortage of skilled staff, and resistance towards adoption of this technology, among others. Like with most medical technologies that have become standard-of-care in the western hospitals, most EHR systems are too expensive for these governments to fund, and require a technical capacity on the part of the physicians and health workers. Affordable solutions are becoming possible with groups like KwaMoja and OpenMRS, whose open source methodology provides a customizable offering to clients who all have unique needs. These two platforms are currently in use in over 10 different Sub Saharan countries where before paper systems existed are showing success. As the overall population in Africa is expected to reach 2 billion in size, solutions to EHR will become even more critical for the healthcare management and lower healthcare costs. Organizations hoping to provide successful solutions should be more sensitive to these costs, and have the user base in mind when designing easy to use software.