Abstract
ABSTRACT
Lack of adequate information on disease management and treatment is one of the pressing health care problems in Africa. Determining priorities when planning health interventions is also not easy due to lack of reliable evidence and methods of identifying priorities. Great developments in the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) during the last few decades have aroused much hope that they can help deal with such health issues. This is due to factors such as the ability of these technologies to go beyond boundaries of space and time and to carry out multiple functions at amazing speed. Many developing countries are therefore increasingly acknowledging that there is an urgent need to harness these ICTs to address locally relevant problems. In Uganda, a country where funds, electricity, telephone lines and skilled medical personnel are not readily available, Personal Digital Assistants (handheld computers) have emerged as one of the channels through which medical information can be availed to health workers in rural areas. The Personal Digital Assistants can also facilitate health information management. Premised on the modernisation theory of development, the theory of the information society and the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this thesis investigates the way the digital assistants are playing the two roles above and how, in so-doing, they affect health service delivery in selected rural areas in Uganda. It highlights the fact that by making medical information available to health workers, the PDAs have boosted the health workers’ capacity to handle health issues. Furthermore, they have automated the health information management reporting system, the result being complete, timely and accurate reports that act as early warning systems and facilitate health planning. The thesis argues that in spite of the fact that there are obstacles to the use of new ICTs in Third World settings, through an assessment of the benefits they can bring and the risks countries face if they ignore them, the obstacles can be dealt with and the ICTs’ maximum potential to contribute to social change realised.
ABSTRACT
Lack of adequate information on disease management and treatment is one of the pressing health care problems in Africa. Determining priorities when planning health interventions is also not easy due to lack of reliable evidence and methods of identifying priorities. Great developments in the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) during the last few decades have aroused much hope that they can help deal with such health issues. This is due to factors such as the ability of these technologies to go beyond boundaries of space and time and to carry out multiple functions at amazing speed. Many developing countries are therefore increasingly acknowledging that there is an urgent need to harness these ICTs to address locally relevant problems. In Uganda, a country where funds, electricity, telephone lines and skilled medical personnel are not readily available, Personal Digital Assistants (handheld computers) have emerged as one of the channels through which medical information can be availed to health workers in rural areas. The Personal Digital Assistants can also facilitate health information management. Premised on the modernisation theory of development, the theory of the information society and the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this thesis investigates the way the digital assistants are playing the two roles above and how, in so-doing, they affect health service delivery in selected rural areas in Uganda. It highlights the fact that by making medical information available to health workers, the PDAs have boosted the health workers’ capacity to handle health issues. Furthermore, they have automated the health information management reporting system, the result being complete, timely and accurate reports that act as early warning systems and facilitate health planning. The thesis argues that in spite of the fact that there are obstacles to the use of new ICTs in Third World settings, through an assessment of the benefits they can bring and the risks countries face if they ignore them, the obstacles can be dealt with and the ICTs’ maximum potential to contribute to social change realised.