The recent Blackberry woes to launch its smartphones in UAE and KSA (cf. Wall Street Journal) remain us that Internet is still a State concern. However, Gulf countries seems to be at the cutting edge of Health 2.0.
Credits : Wall Street Journal, 2010.
Smartphones as Communication & Prevention Tools
Last week, Ministry of Health of United Arab Emirates launched a free iPhone application in English or in Arabic: with it, people can geotag services and health care providers. In addition to this, the Ministry of Health would like to use it in order to promote health and prevention (especially among women about the risks associated with the consumption of diet pills, plague mentioned in a previous post).
On Internet, the new Website Doctor-I allows to select quickly your doctor (from a 700 professionals database), to locate and make an appointment with him. A confirmation by SMS is then sent to the patient. In the same idea, in Dubai on 17 October, the Dubai Health Authority presented its new site at the Conference on Technology, the GITEX 2010.This platform enables to identify the different health professionals but also to share medical information about patients.
Improving Health with ICT
In Abu Dhabi, the Health Authority (HAAD) introduced on 18 October a CME1 Online Accreditation System for Healthcare Professionals in the Emirate. On their Website, professionals can have clear and updated information: “Health Authority-Abu Dhabi has developed a set of standards and criteria for CME providers to ensure health professionals have access to unbiased, independent and high quality information in all of their educational activities. Furthermore we are planning to introduce online CME courses which will allow physicians to complete coursework at their own pace and participate in webcasts and online tutorials making it easy for physicians to complete their required coursework while working full-time or juggling a busy schedule”.
The Health Authority of Abu Dhabi also launched this week a system of SMS/email in order to reduce obesity or cardiovascular risks among Emirate population. According to the Khaleej Times, “Over two thirds of the Emirati population are by international standards, overweight or obese, and around one in five Emirati adults have diabetes and a further one in four are at high risk of developing diabetes over the next five years. With the UAE’s leading cause of death being cardiovascular disease, simple changes, made early enough, such as daily exercise, healthier food choices and smoking cessation will greatly reduce these risks. [...] Our population is suffering from grave health conditions that are easily preventable…. Following the suggestions and analysis found on the website will help patients lead a better life and make informed health choices.” First designed for diabetics (see our previous post), this system of alerts via SMS/email called Weqaya has been deployed at large scale and can reach a large proportion of the population.
Relying on technology is not only allow the patient to relieve his memory but also connect professionals with patients: a survey of insulin identified by diabetic patients and transmitted electronically to his doctor allows an effective monitoring of chronical diseases.
Jordan into the bargain on 11 October announced the launch of the “Jordan Health Initiative“ to promote and bring together ICT initiatives in order to improve access to primary care for all citizens2.
This ehealth week is very connected. Does it really improve the health care systems in the Arab world? Or does it reinforce the inequalities in access to care?
