Data Connectivity of Rural Health Districts
In many developing nations, healthcare is typically provided through many rural district health offices, which may or may not have data connectivity to other health centers in the area. The capability of exchanging data between central health facilities and remote field offices is critically important to providing quality patient care via:
- Interaction among healthcare professional to solve day-to-day problems
- Retrieval and transfer of patient medical records
- Remote treatment/diagnosis
- Emergency and outbreak warning
- Professional training and resource development
In those few locales where connectivity does exist, most of the data networks are built by various foreign aid organizations, each with specific goals in economic, educational and healthcare development that may not always be consistent with the long term benefits for the rural health centers. Even when we build data connectivity to meet the immediate needs of the sponsoring organizations under adverse conditions and limited resources, it will be wise to consider the requirements for the health offices to maximize the long term benefits.
The data connectivity should have the following characteristics:
- Bidirectional transfer of data at equal speeds
- Ability to store and forward data
- Minimum data transfer rates of x Kb/s and above
- Lower the cost structure
- It should be possible to easily network and expand the network
- Known, tested, tried and reliable technology
- Components readily available worldwide
Technology solutions must further take into consideration - and address - nontechnical issues related to the private and public section such as politics and governmental policies, donor policies and corporate presence.
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