By Theresa Kef Sesay
To actualize the transformation of the health sector into a digitalized health information system, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Directorate of Science and Innovation and a Non-Governmental Organisation, Living Goods, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the 28th May 2020 with the aim of boosting the health sector.
The rationale of the initiative is to reduce mortality through the effective use of technology to generate data for surveillance and case management,
Chief Medical Officer of Sierra Leone, Rev. Canon Dr. Thomas Samba, maintained that in the Post Ebola era the health sector has been working towards transformation in order to be more effective and responsive through available information technology. He noted that digital technology is an integral part of Sierra Leone’s national COVID-19 preparedness response plan 2020 . Since they launched it in April the ICT pillar has developed and roll out sms for self-check-up and public information dissemination and E-pass for travel management.
In another engagement it was disclosed that selected members of the national community health workers programme of about 17,800 strong personnel are currently providing preventive diagnostic treatment and referral services in their communities with the support of digital tools.
Through this partnership, community health workers will be empowered with early detection, tracking and escalation of case outbreaks through the effective use of technology in the community to the national level for timely action and improved service delivery.
The Country Director of Living Goods ,Alhassan Bah, said that his organisation will collaborate with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and other key stakeholders to conduct situational analysis of Sierra Leone’s COVID -19 response and detail user requirements that will be used to support the Emergency Operation Center with visualisation and analytics and to work with Dimagi to develop and roll out user digital surveillance and case management applications .
Sierra Leone health sector has made significant progress since the Ebola outbreak in 2014 but the ongoing global pandemic is threatening those gains made so far.
Living Goods is a Non- profit, Non – Governmental Organisation that empowers community health workers through digitalized health information system to deliver services on call making it easy for families in need to access quality and cost effective health care services.
Living Goods has since 2019 supported over 10,000 Community Health Workers on service delivery.
