The Place of Legislation in Social Supports and Health Intervention Strategies Through ICT in Delta State
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study was to investigate the place of legislation in the use of ICT in social supports and health intervention strategies specifically to:
- To establish the extent to which ICT is used in social supports and health intervention strategies in Nigeria
- To determine the key challenges in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in healthcare.
- To Establish the relationship between the utilization of the ICTs and the performance of the social supports and health intervention strategies
CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter presents relevant literature on Healthcare, ICT and healthcare, challenges to the adoption and usage of e-Health and E-health and performance of health projects. The chapter also presents the theoretical foundation and the conceptual framework.
Information Communication Technologies (ICT)
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to improve the lives of people in the society. According to the United Nations Development Program (2006), increased use of ICTs enhances service delivery by: delivering economies of scale to improve access to basic services, optimizing service delivery, providing incentives for development and transfer of new technologies and products and increasing efficiency through enhanced connectivity and exchange of knowledge enabling regions to focus on delivering services where they have a comparative advantage providing access to digital development for continuous improvement.
ICTs are changing rapidly, as are businesses surrounding their implementation (Louw & Hanmer 2002). Much of the attention paid to ICT is focused on the producers and their products. Much less attention is being paid to how ICT is shaping the way society is changing and, in turn, being shaped by society. The need to develop and organize new ways to provide efficient healthcare services has thus been accompanied by major technological advances, resulting in a dramatic increase in the use of ICT applications in healthcare and e-health.
ICT and Healthcare
E-Health is defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of health and health-related fields, including health-care services, health surveillance, health literature, and health education, knowledge and research ((Joaquin et al., 2010). An example of areas where E-Health is used includes treating patients, conducting research, educating the health workforce, tracking diseases and monitoring public health. (World Health Organization, 2013) In short E-Health is a useful term to describe the combined use of electronic communication and information technology within the healthcare sector (Mitchell, 2009).
With today’s advanced information and communications technology the distances between the inhabitants of the country, countryside as urban dwellers, is reduced and information for people in rural areas have become much more accessible (Chavula, 2013). Basically, in the current situation it can be expected that all the inhabitants of our planet, wherever they are located, in 2015 will be able to get access to the information needed to get the treatment he or she needs for their illness (Healy, 2008). In reality, this goal will probably be reached later than 2015.
E-health, when it is used with mobile phones and handheld computers, is called M-health. Both these versions of E-Health can contribute with information systems that can be of enormous value in providing health care. They can support health workers during their work in the clinics when there is no doctor around and also helps the workers to keep track of patients and accessing their patient history. In recent years this has helped technologies for information delivery within healthcare systems to be proliferated (Chan et al, 2010). But without electricity, a good infrastructure and a constant flow of money it will be difficult to maintain a successful technical system. Countries such as Uganda have been through thousands of E-Health projects that have subsequently come to nothing because financiers pulled out (Cameron, 2013).
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Initially known as computer patient records, the concept of electronic health records has revolutionized to what it is today from the 1960’s (Hanson, 2006). EHR can be relied on to act as a backup in cases of emergencies and when patients change locations unlike the case of paper based records given the fact that they are easily accessible (Blair, 2007). Essential functions of EHR include shared health records, support for external information requests, and provision of security and message transfer of health records (Edwards, 2007). The benefits of using EHR include improved quality of healthcare, reduced medical errors and reduced costs, access to medical record information and time savings (Miller and West, 2007).
Health Information Systems (HIS)
Health Information systems or health management information systems are according to the literature systems used to collect, analyze, retain, retrieve and evaluate health information (Tan, 2002)). The WHO (2005) article on “Issues in health information’’ adds to this definition by stating that a health management information system incorporates all the data needed by policy makers, clinicians and health service users to improve and protect population health.
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes research design, study population, data collection instrument, data collection and data analysis.
Research Design
Descriptive survey design was used in the study. According to Kothari (2003), the main advantage of this type of design is that it enables the researcher to assess the situation within the study area at the time of the study. This design was therefore deemed appropriate as the researcher was at a position to investigate the relationship between electronic healthcare and performance of the social supports and health intervention strategies. The study was a survey in nature which allowed only part of the targeted population (organizations which have adopted the use of ICT in providing healthcare) to be sampled for the study.
Study Population
The population for this study was organizations running social supports and health intervention strategies in Nigeria. There are ten organizations running projects that have adopted e-health systems, these include: Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH), Knowledge for Health (K4Health), Tupange Commodity Tracking System, HELP (Health Enablement Learning Platform), eHealth, eLearning, Open MRS, Changamka project, E-learning project and StopStockouts project.
CHAPTER FOUR:
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Introduction
In the previous chapter, the researcher described the methodology used in the study. This chapter therefore presents the findings of the study. The objective of this study was to investigate the place of legislation in social supports and health intervention strategies through ICT. A total of 50 respondents were targeted by the study out of which 48 responded giving a response rate of 96%.
General Information
This section presents the general information of the respondents including: gender, age bracket, level of education and duration of service in the organization.
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
This chapter presents the summary of the study, conclusion and recommendation.
Summary of the Study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the place of legislation in social supports and health intervention strategies through ICT. The study was guided by the following objectives: to establish the extent to which ICT is used in social supports and health intervention strategies in Nigeria, to determine the key challenges in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in healthcare and to establish the relationship between the utilization of the ICTs and the performance of the social supports and health intervention strategies
Summary of Findings
The extent to which ICT is used in social supports and health intervention strategies in Nigeria
On the extent of use of ICT in the provision of social supports and health intervention strategies, the study found that ICT had been used in the management of electronic health records to a large extent in managing patients’ records electronically and provision of back up in cases of emergency for patients’ records as indicated by 37.5% of the respondents. The study also found that ICT had been used in telemedicine to share information between patients and healthcare providers to a large extent as indicated by 43.8% and in the provision of medical services from a distance as indicated by 31.3% of the respondents. In health information systems, the study found that ICT had been used to a large extent in checking quality by comparing perception of services delivered as indicated by 56.3% and in gathering information about patients as indicated by 31.3% of the respondents. The findings further revealed that internet was used to a large extent in carrying out research and training and that patients use the internet neutrally in gathering information as indicated by 18.8%. Finally, in mobile health, the study found that ICT was used to a very large extent in communicating with patients and in sharing patients’ information and indicated by 37.5% of the respondents.
Challenges to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in healthcare
Regarding the challenges to the use of ICT in the provision of healthcare services, the study found that inadequate ICT infrastructure in the organization hinders service delivery to the healthcare subscribers (mean score 3.31) and that inadequate ICT infrastructure among the subscribers hinders their access to the healthcare services (mean score 3.31). It was also found that most of the healthcare subscribers lack the technical knowhow on the use of ICT in accessing the healthcare services (Mean score 3.50). The study further found that ineffective government policies in the use ICT in the provision of healthcare services (Mean score of 3.31) and legislation on the access to personal information limits the use of ICT in the provision of healthcare services (mean score of 3.37). The study finally found that allocation of limited funds for health projects in the organization limits the use of ICT in the provision of healthcare (Mean score of 3.69) and that limited funding is allocated to the construction of ICT infrastructure which hinder the provision of healthcare services (Mean score of 3.50).
Relationship between the utilization of the ICTs and the performance of the social supports and health intervention strategies
On the relationship between the utilization of ICT and the performance of social supports and health intervention strategies, the study found that the use of ICT had impacted on the quality of health through the use of internet for research to a very large extent as indicated by 50% and that it had made it easy to compare perceptions of services delivered with the expected standards leading to improvement to a large extent as indicated by 50% of the respondents. On medical errors and cost, the respondents indicated that the use of ICT reduces the cost of movement in search for healthcare services to a large extent as indicated by 37.5% and that the use of health information systems facilitates decision making to a very large extent as indicated by 43.8%.On the accessibility of medical records, the study found that the respondents indicated that the use of ICT facilitates accessibility to patients’ medical records to very large extent as indicated by 37.5% and that it provides back up in cases of emergency to a large extent as indicated by 43.8% of the respondents. Finally, the study found that the use of ICT saves on time spent to access patients information to very large extent as indicated by 56.3% and that it saves on time spent to look for healthcare services to a very large extent as indicated by 50% of the respondents.
The findings from the regression analysis revealed that use of electronic health records, telemedicine, health information systems, the internet and mobile health explains 73.3% of the performance of social supports and health intervention strategies. The findings from correlation analysis further revealed that all variable tested had a positive relationship with the performance of social supports and health intervention strategies and were all significant at 95% confidence level.
Conclusion
From the study, it was concluded that the use of electronic health records, telemedicine, health information systems, the internet and mobile health influences the performance of social supports and health intervention strategies.
The study therefore concluded that ICT is used to a large extent in the management of health records where they provide back up in cases of emergency.
The study also concludes that ICT is used in telemedicine where it allows sharing of information between patients and healthcare providers.
The study further concludes that health information systems is used to large extent in checking quality by comparing perception of services delivered and gathering information about patients.
The study finally concludes that mobile health is used to a very large extent in communicating with patients and sharing patients’ information. This improves the quality of healthcare service delivery.
Recommendations
The following were the recommendations of the study:
The study recommends that organizations that have adopted the use of ICT in running social supports and health intervention strategies should develop health application that is a “one stop shop” for all health needs. This will improve the delivery of healthcare services.
The study further recommends that organizations should train its staff and patients on the use of ICT in delivering and accessing healthcare services. This would improve the performance of social supports and health intervention strategies.
The study also recommends that organizations providing e-health should services should explore more simple technologies which can be used by patients and staff to ensure quality service delivery. This will promote adoption resulting from simplicity of the technology.
The study finally recommends that more resources be allocated for ICT infrastructure. This would improve the use of ICT in delivering and accessing healthcare services.
Recommendations for Further Research
The study was carried to investigate the place of legislation in social supports and health intervention strategies through ICT. The researcher therefore recommends that another study be carried to assess the use of ICT in the provision of healthcare services in hospitals.
The study also recommends that another study be done on the preparedness of public hospitals in Nigeria for the adoption of e-health technology which was not the concern of this study.
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