Dear Readers,
eHealth has been the talk of the town for quite some time, and as an institution which is committed to innovation, validation and implementation the Swiss Tropical Institute has of course embarked on these developments using information and communication technology. However, we try to see it not only as a technological approach to the problems and questions we are dealing with, but rather as Eysenbach, a pioneer of eHealth put it “as a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide”.  

In this newsletter you will find some examples of STI’s involvement in eHealth. Daniel Weibel presents an innovative approach to demographic surveillance of nomadic populations in Chad. In the area of validation Don de Savigny, who is chairing the technical advisory board of the Health Metrics Network presents this global initiative, which is geared to improve the information basis for decision making in health systems. In the area of the implementation Marc Blunier discusses STI’s experience in a Ukrainian-Swiss cooperation programme, where a model for the integration of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) in clinical practice is being tested. Finally, Joachim Pelikan shows practical examples of eLearning, which have been developed at the Swiss Tropical Institute. This reminds us that the Information and Communication tools are at the end of the day only tools, and do not in their own right improve anything. The people who use them make the difference.
Enjoy the reading and do not hesitate to give us feedback.

Dr. Nick Lorenz

Head of Department SCIH

 

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