UB-SoM, Orange Partner In m-Learning
Mpho Mokwape | Monday March 10, 2014 16:44
Speaking at the official launch at UB on Friday, SoM representative, Oatlhokwa Nkomazana, said the initiative would allow students and the medical fraternity to leverage the wealth of digital learning and clinical resources within a short time.
She said that easy access to information is important for any medical student and practicing physician. She stated that the four clinical sites dispersed across the country offer a solution that would enable access to information anytime and anywhere.
Ntomazana said m-Learning is a School of Medicine initiative that follows a successful pilot study by Botswana UPenn Partnership (BUP) and UB-SoM, UB Library and Orange Botswana. “The successful implementation of the m-Learning initiative has required the School of Medicine to engage with and strengthen relationship with Orange Botswana and BUP,” Ntomazana said.
Through the initiative, residents and students would receive tablets loaded with robust collection of medical applications, research databases, healthcare guidelines and protocols.
Ntomazana said the wireless access provided by Orange network complements the existing university infrastructures. To date, 280 tablets are in circulation and they are gradually being distributed and tested.
Orange Botswana chief executive officer, Philippe Baudin, said demand for health services is increasing in Africa and Botswana, in particular, as the population continues to grow rapidly and undergoes significant social and economic changes.
“This is driving an increase in the per-capita and total spending on healthcare and creating challenges for governments,” he said.
He explained that mobile technologies have the potential to provide great benefits to both governments and the public and that it can help provide people with expected health services. “For instance, m-health services can help prevent and facilitate monitoring of chronic conditions, like diabetes, at a lower cost than other traditional medical care.
M-health offers the convenience of remote interactions between patients and practitioners, and the ability to monitor patients continually in a non-intrusive way,” said Baulin.
He hailed telemedicine as another health programme implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health and BUP, to provide seamless and quick patient diagnosis via cell phone and tablets.
He explained that the programme allows instant communication between nurses working in clinics, who may be in remote areas and specialist doctors in major hospitals, hence bridging the existing distance and geographical gap between these professionals. “Currently m-health diagnostic service is used in Dermatology, Oral Health, Radiology and Cervical Cancer screening. The potential is there to address more medical challenges through this mobile technology,” Baudin said.