Committed to Connecting the World
ITU Arab Regional Development Forum
‫المنتدي اإلقليمــــي للتنمية‬
“ICT = I C Tomorrow”
2013 ‫ أكتوبر‬28 ،‫المنامة – مملكة البحرين‬
Session 4
ICT as a Catalyst for Improving
Health
Mr. Karim Abdelghani
Programme Coordinator
ITU Arab Regional Office
Email: karim.abdelghani@itu.int
Arab RDF, Manama, Bahrain, 28 October 2013
Committed to Connecting the World
eHealth Overview
The World Health Organization defines eHealth as the use of information
and communication technologies (ICT) for health. In its broadest sense,
eHealth is concerned with improving the flow of information, through
electronic means, to support the delivery of health services and the
management of health systems.
Examples of eHealth:
Electronic Health Records
Health Information
Systems
Telemedicine
Mobile Health
Practice, Patient, Clinical
Management Systems
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Benefits and Impact of
eHealth
Access to Services
Efficiency Gains in Health Services
Quality and Safety of Care
Health Monitoring and Reporting
Access to Health Knowledge and Education
Operations Planning and Management
Empowering Individuals
Innovation and Growth
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eHealth Components
Leadership and Governance
Services and Applications
Strategy and
Implementation
Standards and
Interoperability
Legislation ,
Policy and
Compliance
Workforce
Infrastructure
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ITU and eHealth
Since 1994, ITU has implemented telemedicine projects in developing countries and
organized seminars and workshops on telemedicine in different parts of the world.
Activities:
•
Raising awareness about ICTs’ role in improving healthcare delivery in developing countries
•
Providing assistance in implementing technical cooperation projects in e-and m-health
•
Encourage collaboration between the telecommunication & the health sectors in developing
countries to maximize utilization of resources for implementing eHealth
•
Disseminate experiences & best practices on ICT technologies’ use in eHealth in developing
countries (incl. creating guidelines and training materials on e-Health applications)
•
Promote the development of technical standards for eHealth applications and develop
guidelines for developing countries on how to use them
•
Facilitate the establishment of collaboration platforms that bring together e-Health experts
from the industry, academic institutions & NGOs to stimulate cooperation and knowledge
sharing
•
Encourage cooperation among developing and developed countries in the field of m-health
Presentation
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ITU-D Publications on eHealth
(sample)
Facilitating national eHealth planning
The National eHealth Strategy Toolkit (2012) presents a
methodology and set of resources to guide country decision makers to
develop their national eHealth strategy and roadmap.
Several countries have already used the toolkit to
develop/update/review their eHealth national strategy.
Facilitating eHealth infrastructure planning
The Scaling eHealth Services in step with ICT transformation
(2011) provides guidance to e-Health planners on e-Health services that
can be deployed immediately with available infrastructure and on which
additional services can be added as the infrastructure is transformed
according to the needs and constrains of the target demographics
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ITU Facilitating e-health Standardization:

ITU-T Technology Watch report on e-Health Standards and
Interoperability published April 2012

The report explains how rapid advancements in the development of
e-health standards must accompany three trends in electronic
healthcare in the coming decade:
1. Advancements in healthcare delivery via mobile and wireless
eHealth technologies;
2. Personalized medicine, including personal health records,
medical diagnostic devices, and biometric records; and
3. Interactive healthcare via social media and Web 2.0
applications.
http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/23/01/T23010000170001PDFE.pdf
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Documenting new ICT Applications
M-Government
• Published a report with OECD on “Mobile
Government for responsive governments and
connected society”
• The report documents the use mobile
technologies to enhance government’s
performance, improve public service delivery, and
engage citizens and civil society organizations in
policy and decision making both in developed
and developing countries,
• The report is available at: http://www.itu.int/ITUD/cyb/app/m-gov.html .
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Activities on mHealth
(sample)
WHO-ITU NCDs & Mobile Health

ITU in partnership with WHO, launched a joint work plan to use mobile
technologies to address the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) burden
through scalable mHealth solutions

The initiative targets 8 countries in 4 years in the area of prevention,
treatment and policy enforcement.
The initiative aims at:

Leveraging the mobile platform for health to address Non Communicable
Diseases (NCD) and their risk factors that make the largest contribution
to mortality and overall disease burden in majority of developing
countries

Enhance country capacities to develop and employ mobile technologies
and communications channels

Create country level platforms and environment for partnership

Design mHealth for NCD intervention projects

Strengthen capacity of local stakeholders for optimal and efficient use of
available resources

Validate use of mobile NCD projects
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ITU-D CYB recent Publication on
eHealth
ICT for improving information and accountability for
Women’s and Children’s Health (2013)
Information and communication technology (ICT) and
eHealth applications play an essential role in meeting the ten
recommendations set by the Commission on Information and
Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health (CoIA).
Together, they aim at creating a system to track whether
donations for women's and children's health are made on
time, if resources are spent wisely and transparently, and
whether the desired results are achieved.
This report reviews each of the ten CoIA recommendations,
highlighting the contributions ICT applications can provide in
their implementation and in fast tracking the fulfillment of
the MDGs 4 and 5
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Thank You
For more information:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/ICTApplications/eHEALTH/Pages/EHEALTH.
aspx
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