LREB Counties urged to digitise healthcare systems » Capital News
KISUMU, Kenya, Oct 17 – Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) counties have been urged to embrace useful innovations that allow digital integration programs to share health and related data across platforms.
LREB Chairman Governor Anyang Nyong’o says counties must be ready to harness technology for inclusive Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Nyong’o, who is also the Kisumu County Governor says his administration had in the recent past implemented the UHC as it transitioned to the Kisumu Social Health Insurance Scheme.
“I am a firm believer that primary health is the engine for universal healthcare and establishing innovative health financing arrangements are crucially important to achieve progress towards UHC,” he said.
He says LREB counties should learn from the Kisumu journey towards UHC, which started in 2018 with digital registration of all households in the county via M-TIBA, registering approximately 850,000 persons.
Nyong’o says during the implementation of the program, his administration realized they were missing a key ingredient and a great innovation, a comprehensive community health information system.
“A near accurate population profile ensures that you focus on the vulnerable to reduce out of pocket expenditure,” he said.
While giving a keynote speech at the start of the Lake Region Digital health conference in Kisumu, Nyong’o announced that through partnership, the county is now fully digitized.
“I am proud to report that out of our mutually beneficial partnership with Living Goods, Kisumu County has achieved complete digitization of the community health system,” he said.
He says this has enabled the County to achieve complete household visits and flag out community members to be referred for health services at the next level of service delivery.
He further noted that the innovation has contributed markedly to the acceleration of health indicators in the county particularly related to maternal and child health.
During the conference, the county launched two key documents, the digital health road map and the Kisumu data health information exchange and data repository blueprint.
“It is in our vision that in the next 3 years, all our digital platforms will contribute towards county health information, giving insights from the descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics,” said Nyong’o.
He says LREB Counties, departments of health must be open to adopting digital technologies to improve healthcare coordination, increase access, empower patients and reduce costs.
Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Eastern Africa Coordinator Dr Mazyanga Mazaba underscored the importance of health digitization.
Mazaba says digital transformation in the health sector worldwide has significantly impacted healthcare delivery.
“It makes healthcare most accessible, efficient and personalized,” she said.
She noted that governments have been able to respond to disease outbreaks on time due to the digitization of their healthcare systems.
Mazaba says counties within the region, once digitized, will benefit from a range of welfare in terms of running healthcare services.
The digitization of the healthcare gives the counties a heads-up on detection of disease outbreaks, avoiding financial leakages to proper drug inventory amongst other benefits.
According to Governor Nyong’o, the digital transition will fix the challenges brought along with the manual operations, which he said is time wasting and open to manipulations.
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