On Wednesday, 30th August 2023, eHealth Africa hosted its monthly Public Health Insights Webinar Series to provide a platform for intellectual discussions on improving healthcare systems in Africa. This episode titled, “Optimizing Geographic Information Systems for Improved Healthcare Delivery, successfully enabled the audience to understand the concept of Geographic Information Systems and how it helps capture, store and retrieve data for analysis and display. The webinar also exposed the audience to various GIS  components like software, hardware, methods, data and people and how it promotes efficiency of data management.

This episode of Insights webinar featured seasoned Public Health Experts who have designed and deployed various GIS tools in promoting healthcare delivery in various parts of Africa.  The Panelists discussed how stakeholders are also currently deploying GIS tools in improving operations, management and decision making in the healthcare sector. They also explained in detail how GIS has promoted authenticity and quality of data especially in the area of disease surveillance and monitoring amongst other impacts in the healthcare sector. 

The panelists also helped the audience to understand how GIS can be used for the tracking and visualization of disease outbreaks while helping healthcare providers to identify patterns, hotspots and trends of  diseases. Also, importantly, GIS information can help in the allocation of resources when it comes to response to health emergencies.  GIS tools, according to panelists, have been instrumental in the eradication of polio in Nigeria via the use of remote sensing tools to identify settlements with real individuals that require health interventions.

Some of the challenges of deploying GIS technology especially in developing countries as highlighted by the panelists include inadequate capacity and high cost of funding. They call on a strategic context sensitive approach in scaling the deployment of GIS technology for optimum utility to improve healthcare delivery.

Host

Adanna Alex: eHealth Africa  

Panelists

Dr. Samuel Saidu - Sierra Leone - Researcher and Lecturer College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of Sierra Leone

Dahiru Hassan- Senior Program Analyst, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA)

Elvis Nsofor- A Geospatial Intelligence Data Analyst