NATIONAL E-HEALTH STRATEGY - ISFTeH

GHANA E-HEALTH STRATEGY

NATIONAL E-HEALTH STRATEGY

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GHANA E-HEALTH STRATEGY 2

GHANA E-HEALTH STRATEGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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BACKGROUND

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THE HEALTH SECTOR IN GHANA

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E-HEALTH AND HEALTH SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

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THE NATIONAL E-HEALTH VISION

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THE NATIONAL E-HEALTH STRATEGY

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NATIONAL E-HEALTH ARCHITECTURE

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IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS

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INDICATIVE COSTS AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION PLAN

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GHANA E-HEALTH STRATEGY

FOREWORD

It is becoming increasingly clear that many developing countries, including Ghana, will find it difficult to achieve all the targets of the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. The challenges are well documented. Weak health systems exacerbated by continuing challenges in developing and retaining the requisite human resource for health have contributed to the current level of performance of the health sector in many developing countries. To overcome these challenges, the need for a faster and effective way to generate knowledge, share knowledge and translate knowledge into effective and affordable interventions and strategies that make health care accessible to the most needy and vulnerable people in our societies is urgently needed.

Ghana is struggling to meet the MDGs not because of the lack of solutions to our health problems, but because we lack the resources to apply the tested and well rehearsed interventions where it is needed and in a sustained manner. In almost all instances our inability to acquire and deploy the needed technology remains a formidable barrier.

The development of our health infrastructure has lagged behind as a result of continuing poor investments in the health sector. Our inability to invest more in the health sector stems out of many factors which unfortunately have been aggravated by the global economic recession. This has resulted in many communities having to go without basic health services and this contributes significantly to our overall ability to meet the MDGs.

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GHANA E-HEALTH STRATEGY

We need to apply technology to generate the information required for the formulation of precise health policies to enable us meet our needs. Policies that will help meet our financing needs and provide us the opportunity to seek and provide basic services for those who are not being captured by the health system in its present state. We need to apply technology to boost coverage of our public health interventions and to empower our populations to seek treatment and make healthier lifestyle choices. We need to leverage technology in our search for solutions in the management of diseases of poverty such as buruli ulcer and filariasis.

E-health holds a lot of promise for making the big strides urgently needed for improving the health of our communities, especially those living in rural areas. This strategy provides a framework for the design and roll out of e-health in the health sector. It addresses the issues of standards and inter-operability and mechanisms for coordination that will help to minimise the frequent failures usually encountered in the adoption of e-health solutions. With the clear direction that it provides, we should be able to accord e-health a high priority in future plans of the health sector.

DR. BENJAMIN KUNBUOR MINISTR OF HEALTH

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