Innovative healthcare applications of ICT for developing countries

Abstract

Globally, there is a rising demand for an effective, efficient, and trustworthy healthcare delivery system, particularly in developing countries with large populations and significant remote or inaccessible areas. The use of ICT to deliver healthcare services, in particular eHealth and its sub-category m-health, offers an enormous potential to reduce costs, advance health information exchange, and improve healthcare access, as well as public and personalized medicine. However, developing countries also face unique challenges to optimally develop and apply ICT in healthcare sector, including financial feasibility, infrastructure, access, equity, and quality; knowledge and research evidence; leadership and governance; security and interoperability; and social and technological environments. We review innovative ICT healthcare applications and different types of implementation challenges in developing countries and provide specific application examples in both developed and developing countries. Finally, we propose a comprehensive design model for ICT applications in developing countries as an aid for: (1) disease management and surveillance, (2) treatment planning and monitoring, and (3) quality control of healthcare. The integrated system consisted of eight key elements: patients, healthcare providers, data and data analytics, regulators, researchers, healthcare payers, telecommunication providers, and hardware and software vendors. It is our hope that this proposed model will serve as a basis for the implementation of ICT in healthcare sector in developing countries.