Kiberu Vincent M, Mars Maurice, Scott Richard E
Department of TeleHealth, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2017 May 29;9(1):e1-e10. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1277.
Most developing countries, including Uganda, have embraced the use of e-Health and m-Health applications as a means to improve primary healthcare delivery and public health for their populace. In Uganda, the growth in the information and communications technology industry has benefited the rural communities and also created opportunities for new innovations, and their application into healthcare has reported positive results, especially in the areas of disease control and prevention through disease surveillance. However, most are mere proof-of-concepts, only demonstrated in use within a small context and lack sustainability. This study reviews the literature to understand e-Health's current implementation status within Uganda and documents the barriers and opportunities to sustainable e-Health intervention programmes in Uganda.
A structured literature review of e-Health in Uganda was undertaken between May and December 2015 and was complemented with hand searching and a document review of grey literature in the form of policy documents and reports obtained online or from the Ministry of Health's Resource Centre.
The searches identified a total of 293 resources of which 48 articles met the inclusion criteria of being in English and describing e-Health implementation in Uganda. These were included in the study and were examined in detail.
Uganda has trialled several e-Health and m-Health solutions to address healthcare challenges. Most were donor funded, operated in silos and lacked sustainability. Various barriers have been identified. Evidence has shown that e-Health implementations in Uganda have lacked prior planning stages that the literature notes as essential, for example strategy and need readiness assessment. Future research should address these shortcomings prior to introduction of e-Health innovations.
包括乌干达在内的大多数发展中国家已开始采用电子健康和移动健康应用程序，作为改善其民众初级医疗服务和公共卫生的一种手段。在乌干达，信息通信技术产业的发展使农村社区受益，也为新的创新创造了机会，并且这些创新在医疗保健领域的应用已取得了积极成果，特别是在通过疾病监测进行疾病控制和预防方面。然而，大多数只是概念验证，仅在小范围内展示了其应用情况，且缺乏可持续性。本研究回顾相关文献，以了解乌干达电子健康的当前实施状况，并记录乌干达可持续电子健康干预项目的障碍和机遇。
于2015年5月至12月对乌干达的电子健康进行了结构化文献综述，并辅以人工检索以及对灰色文献（以在线获取或从卫生部资源中心获得的政策文件和报告形式）的文献回顾。
检索共识别出293种资源，其中48篇文章符合纳入标准，即文章为英文且描述了乌干达电子健康的实施情况。这些文章被纳入研究并进行了详细审查。
乌干达已试行多种电子健康和移动健康解决方案以应对医疗保健挑战。大多数由捐助者资助，各自为政且缺乏可持续性。已识别出各种障碍。有证据表明，乌干达的电子健康实施缺乏文献中所指出的关键前期规划阶段，例如战略和需求准备情况评估。未来的研究应在引入电子健康创新之前解决这些不足。
