eHealth |
eHealth is an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies. In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also a state-of-mind, a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology (eHealth researcher Gunther Eysenbach). Electronic Medical Records are one important part of eHealth, enabling the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals.
Chris Bailey
Christopher Bailey has been at WHO for four years working on a number of Knowledge Management initiatives, among which has been developing learning systems at the clinical level in resource poor settings. Trained in health information and library science, prior to WHO Mr. Bailey worked at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Latest Prospects for Open Source Medical Records Systems for Resource Poor Settings
Health medical records as a basis for health service planning and resource allocation are of vital importance in settings with limitted resources. However collecting the right data and transforming it to relevant information which allows to draw the right conclusions is a step which is not done in many places. Whether the data is collected on paper or electronically does not matter at the end important is the involvment of the staff responsible for its collection and the tangible benefits for the health professionals. Electronic medical record systems supporting the work force in its daily practice and enabeling them to take informed decissions on the spot might provide a starting point to identify the relevant data to be collected.
Daniel Weibel
Daniel Weibel has done his study in Geography at the University of Basel. Currently he is doing his PhD in Epidemiology at the STI in the Group (Human and Animal Health) headed by Dr. Jakob Zinsstag.
Biometrics for individual identification in field-based health surveillance systems. Experiences with nomadic pastoralists in Chad
The authors are conducting interdisciplinary research cum action studies among nomadic communities of the Chadian prefecutures Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem since 1998; however, the sizes of the communities remained basically unknown.
That’s why the STI together with the CSSI (Centre de Support en Santé international) started vaccination campaigns in 2000.
The mobility of the pastoral nomads allows them to make use of ecological regions that otherwise cannot be used in such a productive and sustainable way. All three, Mobility, Flexibility and Diversification are components of a strategy to efficiently utilize natural resources like water and pasture. The unity of access strategies and the availability of the resources is called the pastoral potential of the mobile extensive livestock production system.
Mobile pastoralists are considered as ‘hard to reach’ for health and veterinary interventions. In view of monitoring the progresses made towards reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, it is essential to generate reliable data for planning and better understanding whether those in greatest need actually benefit from vaccination and other health services. Therefore fingerprinting was introduced to gain reliable demographic data.
Among the results of this project the feasibility of the biometrics concept, tools and methodology have been proven and it is considered a first step towards vital demographic and health data which are essential for health planning. Services and interventions can be improved.