Knowledge-Based Systems for Strengthening African Health Systems

Abstract

The set of difficulties characterizing health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are caused by many factors, among others, the very limited number of specialists, the predominance of paramedical personnel and micro-health centers, the poor distribution of large medical centers, the almost absence of continuing training and missing means of maintaining and updating knowledge. These difficulties, however, find a response in the development of targeted intelligent solutions such as expert systems capable of providing continuous assistance to professionals and structures of health systems in African countries and transforming them into effective organizations. Unfortunately, the design of such systems still face many challenges, e.g., they have to promote circulation and simplified access to current targeted information (e.g. current knowledge) that healthcare professionals need in their daily lives and they have to take into account local needs to be better adapted and useful for the heterogenous group of users. This article provides a short overview of the current urgent needs of the health systems in SSA, motivates requirements on targeted digital support technology and discusses first prototypical solutions to motivate possible research directions.