Orange collaborates with medical school

Staff Writer | Monday May 26, 2014 14:58

 The project will provide medical school staff, students, trainees with seamless, anytime-anywhere, access to clinical and learning resources and communication tools through the use of tablet computers.

Through the m-learning initiative, students, residents and academic staff receive tablets loaded with a robust collection of medical applications, research databases and various Botswana healthcare guidelines and protocols. The data package allows users to access resources away from Wi-Fi areas, while the Closed User Group (CUG) enables them to call each other at no extra cost. The project is funded through the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grant from the US government and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

MEPI programme director at UB, Dr Oathokwa Nkomazana pointed out that access to readily available information is an important part of being a medical student and practicing physician. She said the wireless access provided by Orange Botswana complements the existing university infrastructure to provide seamless access to learning, teaching, and clinical resources. “With four clinical sites dispersed across Botswana, we needed a solution that would enable our students and doctors to access information anytime and anywhere,” she stated. She explained that they opted for a mobile solution that would influence the wealth of digital learning and clinical resources already in existence at UB Library. She said that to date, they have 280 tablets and they are gradually distributing and continuing to test the data package.

Orange Botswana chief executive officer, Philippe Baudin said they are committed to developing the tangible benefits of using mobile technologies in the health sector and secure buy-in from the stakeholders for the benefit of Batswana. He said mobile technologies have the potential to provide great benefit to both governments and the public. He said the initiative can help provide people with expected health services.

For instance, e-health services can help prevent and facilitate monitoring of chronic conditions, like diabetes, at a lower cost than other traditional medical care. It offers the convenience of remote interactions between patients and practitioners, and the ability to monitor patients continually in a non-intrusive way. “Lives can be saved through timely patient diagnosis and treatment, remote monitoring of progress and treatment of patients, as well as managing medication, non-adherence issues specifically for cases such as HIV and other chronic conditions,” Baudin explained.