COMPARISON STUDY ON ICT IN THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM OF DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING NATIONS

摘要

Today ICT is in a position to play a major role in various industries across the globe. It is being used in the financial industry to predict the markets, transport and freight industry to track shipments of goods in real time, education to remotely teach students through massive open online courses (MOOCS), its being used in all sectors of the banking industry, retail and wholesale industry for online transactions and to keep track of stock, just to mention a few. In the health industry, ICT usage is still lagging behind as compared to other industries especially in developing nations that are in dire need of this technology to bridge the gap of the lack of health professionals. According to the 2006 WHO report, there is a deficit of 2.4 million doctors and nurses in the world with Africa having a health workforce density of 2.3 professional health workers per 1000 people. With the advancement and reduced costs of technology, ICT is in a position to greatly improve healthcare systems. In this paper, a study is made on the current stance of ICT in the healthcare sector, making a comparison between developed nations and developing nations. Emphasis will be put on success stories of ICT in the healthcare system of developed nations and how these can be adopted to African developing nations that are in more need of this technology.