Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, launch another digital health initiative by the government: E-Health.
The Akufo-Addo government, with strong support from Vice President Bawumia, has already introduced innovative projects like the drone medical delivery service, which provides essential medical supplies in real-time to remote parts of the country, and the E-Pharmacy, a digital platform that allows Ghanaians to purchase medications online.
The launch of E-Health, which Dr. Bawumia has hinted at for some time, will mark a significant transformation in Ghana’s healthcare system, shifting patient record management from analogue to electronic.
The E-Health digital solution, the first of its kind in Africa, is being implemented by Lightwave e-Health Solutions in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The system is focused on creating a complete electronic medical record and patient management system, with the unique integration of Ghana’s Disease Surveillance Unit’s protocols into the digital platform.
Under E-Health, patient records from all teaching, regional, and district hospitals have been digitized, and these hospitals are networked to allow seamless access to patient records across the country. This means patients transferred between hospitals, regardless of location, will no longer need to carry their medical files with them.
E-Health adds to the substantial transformation of Ghana’s healthcare system over the past seven years. This includes the allocation of ambulances to all constituencies, the drone medical delivery service (which supplies emergency drugs to over 2,000 hospitals), easier access to medications through the E-Pharmacy, and the expansion of public hospitals.
The deployment of this unique Health Information Management System represents a landmark moment in Ghana’s healthcare history. Both the government and developers have stated that it will provide healthcare professionals with real-time access to comprehensive patient records, enhancing decision-making and improving patient safety.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who spearheaded this initiative, has expressed optimism ahead of its official launch, emphasising the expected positive impact on Ghana’s healthcare system.
“Going forward, medical records and patient histories will be gathered in a single database, accessible by any networked hospital during a patient visit. This digitisation effort has increased efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity in service delivery at our health facilities.
“This is very, very significant. Ghana will be the first country in Africa to implement this, and globally, only three countries have done it,” Dr. Bawumia said a few months ago at a health programme in Tamale.
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