PAHO, in collaboration with various partners, offered a webinar for nearly a thousand virtual assistants, during the session doubts were resolved and suggestions were made about the progress of Digital Health in the region.
In early June, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched a series of webinars called Share-Listen-Act, addressing the use of Digital Health and Information Systems for Health (IS4H) and its potential to fight the pandemic. The webinar answered some questions about the use of digital systems and information technologies to deal with COVID-19 from a variety of approaches.
One of the questions raised was about the importance of geolocation tools during the pandemic, as some countries have used these systems in quarantine management to identify areas at risk of contagion through Contact tracing tools. In addition to these measures, PAHO suggests integration in conjunction with self-implemented COVID-19 testing tools to identify possible outbreaks and levels of contagion risk.
Another issue was the role of telemedicine in the post-COVID-19 world, services that, despite being in force for years, this year became more important because of the global health situation. So, telehealth, it must go its way as additional support to public health systems.
On the other hand, one of the central themes within Digital Health is how to offer medical care through digital platforms to population without internet access. PAHO suggests that it is important to detect existing channels and measure them for effective use. Likewise, Digital Health not only works for devices with internet connection, digital platforms must be created taking into account the limitations of infrastructure on the Internet in different populations, one option are mobile phones, telephone networks, among others. The IDB published a study on this, you can consult it by clicking here.
The use of IS4H is one of the most detailed proposals on Digital Health issues not just for PAHO but for the World Health Organization. However, specific technological infrastructure is required for your application. Following questions on this issue, PAHO resumed the actions taken earlier, when in 2019 the Plan of Action to Strengthening IS4H was approved, which proposed strategic lines of action that support the implementation of these systems to drive actions of Member States to improve their health systems, and which are capable of operating in an interconnected and interoperable manner. This strategy has four lines of action: Management and governance of information systems, Data management and information technology, Information and knowledge management, Innovation, Integration and Convergence. To find out more you can consult in the official document published by PAHO by clicking here.
Finally, PAHO recognizes that Digital Health is not by itself a solution, but a mechanism to address different challenges and problems in health systems, through its various tools is where the continuous improvement of health services will be found.
To access the full webinar follow this link:
https://paho.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/paho/recording/play/51ea3321250f47018a8e6cda73b9e0fa
