Ghana Health Informatics Association

Congratulations Eli for the timely prompt.
As Health Informaticians, its part of our responsibility to work in harmony towards developing m-Health potentials in Ghana.
Please read the following write up (of the year 2009) that touched on some of the potentials of m-Health in Ghana.
The time for action is now.http://erhd.org/cgi/erhd/img/ROLE%20OF%20MOBILE%20PHONE%20TECHNOLOGY%20IMPROVING%20TREATMENT%20OUTCOME%20IN%20GHANA.pdf

erhd.org

*******mHealth and Physicians******

Physicians have always had to be accessible — so they have been rapid adopters of the latest in mobile technology. Years ago, answering services and call centers were the gatekeepers that could get your message to the doctor, if your emergency warranted it. Then came beepers and, later, the first wave of voice-only mobile phones. Today, physicians are rapidly adopting smartphones and tablet computers (for example, one research house says 81% of US physicians use smartphones: American Medical Association, 2012).
But it’s still early in the adoption of smart mobile technology for health care, or what International Data Corporation (IDC) calls “clinical mobility,” and there is a wide range of mHealth uses for physicians. These begin with basic telehealth applications that provide voice or SMS access to medical advice from remote areas (with many examples in the developing world), and simple appointment-scheduling apps. More transformative uses have begun to appear as well, such as mobile telemetry apps that constantly gather and transmit a person’s vital statistics in real time, or mobile e-prescribing apps. Still very rare are emerging mobile collaboration apps that will eventually enable simultaneous real-time access to the latest medical data, patient history and specialist video consultations.

Current Situation of mHealth

******Mobility leads multiple technologies ready to enable health care********

In fact, multiple technology megatrends support smart mobility’s health care role, including cloud computing (which could provide mobile access to health information and applications), social networks (which have already begun to provide patientcentric information sharing and peer support) and big data analytics (which could provide anywhere, anytime diagnostic insights). And importantly, these technologies are ready to help now. Their value in support of the three primary goals driving health care change — lowering cost, improving outcomes and increasing access — has been demonstrated in a multitude of small pilots and related examples, although these generally lack the size and control group comparisons that health care industry stakeholders require before widespread adoption.

Good morning to all of you. Indeed history has been made as far as health informatics is concerned in Ghana. The much talked about and awaited HELINA Conference had been successfully organized at the ISSER Conference Centre from 7th – 11th March, 2015.

Apparently, we could not have accomplish this without your incredible support. In line with this, I will like to on behalf of the GHIA Council and Executives, extend our deepest and profound gratitude to all of you for your unmeasurable and timely support.