eHealth

Strengthening the Health Workforce through eHealth Innovation: Reflections from the GETHealth Summit

david — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:54:35 +0000

I recently had the privilege of representing CapacityPlus at the Global Education and Technology Health (GETHealth) Summit at the United Nations in New York City, speaking in sessions on distance learning in rural communities and leveraging social media to address the global health workforce gap.

While eHealth and mHealth conferences tend to be geared toward the American and European markets, I found GETHealth refreshing and timely in its focus on lower-resource settings—in fact, the governments of Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda cohosted the summit.

Developing countries face different challenges including bandwidth, mobile phone service geographic coverage, and illiteracy that must be addressed when pursuing eHealth and mHealth solutions. GETHealth brought global thought leaders in health, education, and ICT together to discuss and develop technology-driven initiatives designed to empower health workers and the resource-limited communities they serve.

Author's name:

Kate Tulenko

Publication Date:

March 2013

Strengthening the Mental Health Workforce with eLearning

jennifer — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:01:45 +0000

Some countries have only one psychiatrist, and as many as half of developing countries have fewer than five mental health researchers. The World Health Organization’s calculations indicate that in low- and middle-income countries more than 239,000 additional mental health workers are needed, but only 54.5% of all low-income countries have specific psychiatric education.

One approach to addressing these shortages is through eLearning.

Academic courses and degrees
There are many institutes and companies throughout the world that offer online degrees and certificates, but the education level, cost, and international recognition varies.

Author's name:

Roos Korste, guest blogger

Publication Date:

May 2011

Without the User, There Is No System: Harnessing Technology through the eHealth Workforce

jennifer — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:39:26 +0000

This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.

When we talk about building strong health systems and the health workers to run these systems, we often think about doctors or nurses or community health workers. Just as crucial to health systems are robust health information systems that help manage and make accessible information about patients, clinics, budgets, payroll, and all the other details that make a health care system work.

When it comes to building a strong electronic health (eHealth) information system, the user is, arguably, the most important part.

Still weak, but growing
An eHealth workforce requires system administrators, programmers, and analysts who sustain and extend a country’s health information systems and eHealth technologies. Many countries in the developing world have growing but weak information and communication systems, which makes building the eHealth infrastructure system an ongoing challenge.

Author's name:

Dykki Settle

Publication Date:

March 2011