Seychelles hosts e-health conference

Health ministers and their counterparts in charged of information and communication technology (ICT) from thirteen East, Central and Southern African countries are meeting in Seychelles to discuss the promotion of e-health on the continent.

The meeting is aimed at promoting the use of information technology in the continent’s health care system to help achieve the millennium goals and to attain the most with the limited financial resources.



“Our nations must forge ahead to develop our systems and processes if we are to ensure a better, improved and sustainable quality of life for our people, with health developments taking centre stage,” Vice-President Joseph Belmont said in the conference’s opening address.

The three day conference is an opportunity for the continent’s health and ICT expert to rethink how best to effect change and improve health service provision for the benefit of both consumers and providers using ICT.

“E-health holds the promise of a more evidence-based, result-oriented and effective health care system,” said Belmont.

The conference organizers said the event will allow governments to improve services for patients and communities, increase access to services and improve the training of health workers, with enormous impact on these processes.

Editors' note: e-health is a relatively recent term for health care practice which is supported by electronic processes and communication. The term is inconsistently used: some would argue it is interchangeable with health care informatics and a sub set of health informatics, while others use it in the narrower sense of health care practice using the Internet. The term can encompass a range of services that are at the edge of medicine/health care and information technology.