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Launch of the eHealth Call to Action

18 Nov 2008

Mzamoze Gondwe

Source: TropIKA.net

In July 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation organized a four week session on eHealth in Bellagio, Italy that brought experts from around the world to discuss the use of innovative information, communication and technology strategies to tackle dilapidated health systems in developing countries. The Bellagio eHealth Call to Action can be found on www.ehealth-connection.org .

African countries are falling short of achieving the millennium development goals and are making little progress on the pledges from the Abuja declaration. eHealth is a revolutionary mechanisms that will transform health systems in Africa. It is needed now more than ever in Africa where a third of world’s poorest people live and where there is a deficit of more than 1.7 million care providers in Africa. According to Desmond Tutu, eHealth can and will dramatically improve health systems and has already done so in Kenya where electronic health records are being used for HIV treatment. There are growing efforts on the continent that recognize the importance of eHealth as demonstrated by the adoption of an eHealth strategy by the Council of Ministers at the African Union.

Desmond Tutu urged delegates to commit to the Bellagio eHealth Call to Action by not only signing the call but actively getting involved. He encouraged people to be vocal, to talk to donors, and to adapt technologies. He ended with a famous quote “Yes, we can change”.

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