GeHCS Consulting Projects and Clients
Since its founding in October 2008, Global eHealth Consultants have completed, or are currently working on, a number of projects on contract to various clients.
Southern African Development Community
African Development Bank
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development
World Bank
International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth
Global eHealth Ambassadors Program
World Health Organization
Aga Khan Foundation
Luxembourg Development Agency
Swiss Institute for Tropical Medicine
Medoctor Systems
Telehealth as a monitoring tool for communicable diseases in the SADC Region
The purpose of the consultancy was to assess the feasibility of establishing a Telehealth system as a surveillance tool for communicable diseases including HIV and AIDS, Malaria and TB in the SADC region.
Services provided:
- Assessed the extent to which Telehealth is currently being used as a surveillance and information sharing tool in SADC Member States;
- Explored the potential and feasibility of Telehealth as a surveillance and information tool in the SADC region;
- Assessed the state of telecommunications infrastructure in terms of its readiness to accommodate Telehealth services;
- Identified the equipment currently available in MS that can be used for the establishment of a fully functional Telehealth system for disease surveillance;
- Defined specifications for proposed Telehealth equipment;
- Proposed how the Telehealth system can be used as an early warning system for epidemic out breaks;
- Assessed the human resource requirements for supporting a fully functional Telehealth system in the SADC region; and
- Drafted a costed list of the equipment required for the establishment of a fully functional Telehealth system in the SADC region.
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Develop an eHealth strategic framework for AfDB support of health sector projects in Africa
Services provided:
- Reviewed relevant Bank documents and reports including:
- the Bank’s Medium Term Strategy (MTS);
- Health Sector policy;
- Review of the Health Sector (2006);
- Information Technology Strategy, among others.
- Reviewed the relevant policies and strategies of the Bank in general, and those of the health sector, and those related to ICT in health in particular;
- Reviewed and identified Health Sector-specific opportunities and challenges in Africa that address the ICT in health;
- Identified a few applications that have had significant impact in Africa or elsewhere and that have the potential of being scaled up;
- Collected and reviewed existing eHealth strategies and develop an analytical report;
- Developed a strategic framework to support ICT for Health as well as actionable recommendations on how to include ICT in policy dialogue and planning with country counterparts on sectoral development goals and priorities;
- Prepared the final report on proposed Strategic Framework for eHealth.
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Development of national eHealth strategy in Burkina Faso and Niger
Assessed health-related computerization projects. Reviewed the legal and regulatory constraints. Proposed required human resources and capacity building activities for a viable eHealth strategy in Burkina Faso and Niger.
Services provided:
- Reviewed the national ICT policy and the implementation plans;
- Reviewed the national policy of the Government as regards health;
- Gathered all relevant documentation available at the national, regional and international levels in connection with the development strategy of the sector of health, while taking into account the policies of convergence of the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa of the States (EMUWAS) and the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS);
- Completed an inventory of computerization projects in the health sector by taking account of work already completed at the national level in the field of ICT;
- Completed an inventory of the infrastructures, applications, services and other tools already operational in both the public and private sector, with emphasis on underserved areas;
- Prepared the requirements for priority tools and/or systems that can contribute to the implementation of the eHealth strategy for the next five (5) years;
- Proposed a re-engineering of the national health system to take advantage of eHealth;
- Proposed applications, infrastructure, priority services or tools and systems priority for next the 5 years.
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Mapping out an eHealth strategy for Ghana
Provided technical advice towards the development of a national eHealth strategy for Ghana, following a process beginning with a country situation analysis.
Services provided:
- Negotiatiated an MoU between Ministry of Health of Ghana and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (funding agency).
- Provided technical support and guidance to team in Ghana leading the preparation of the strategy.
Result:
Strategy was formally launched in July 2010 and has been attracting the interest of investors.
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Joint eHealth program and online training program for World Bank staff.
Developed concept note on Joint eHealth program and an online training program for World Bank staff.
Online training program on eHealth used a web seminar (webinar) format, with recorded sessions and live interventions of lecturers from North America, Europe and Africa.
Lecturers from the following organizations took part:
- GeHCs
- World Bank
- WHO
- International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
- The Rockefeller Foundation
- University of Calgary, Canada
- University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
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Global eHealth convention, ISfTeH secretariat, and Global eHealth Ambassadors Program (GeHAP)
Feasibility study and planning for a global eHealth convention. Conducted a feasibility study for a global eHealth compact and ISfTeH support for the creation of national eHealth structures providing support for national eHealth policy and strategy efforts in low- and middle-income countries. As sole contractor, GeHCs was responsible for all aspects of this project.
Services provided:
- Development of project proposal submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation
- Supported capacity building for eHealth policy in countries, through the creation of eHealth national societies or eHealth councils in 4 countries
- Carried out a feasibility study for a permanent secretariat for the ISfTeH, and business plan for the organization, with a plan for sustainability of the secretariat
- identified potential partners and funders
- Prepared a report on the feasibility of a global eHealth convention
- Outlined the development and maintenance of knowledge repositories using material from ISfTeH meetings, workshops and other knowledge-generating and sharing activities.
Created the Global eHealth Ambassadors Program (GeHAP).
This included detailed plan and budget for formation of a blue-ribbon panel of iconic eHealth ambassadors, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to promote adoption and use of eHealth globally.
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Development and updating of tools for managing health infrastructure and technology (HIT) in WHO programs and countries
Services provided:
- Prepared background paper for the inception meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Health Technology;
- Served as rapporteur at the meeting;
- Provided advice on what effective national health technology and health technology management (HTM) programs and systems should ideally entail;
- what tools are needed to strengthen and optimize them;
- what tools (WHO and non-WHO) exist/are available;
- what are the challenges/problems in tools' country application/implementation and wide availability, are these tools up-to-date or have gaps in their content /do not reflect current priorities and knowledge, and thus need review / revision / update;
- what specific areas are nor covered by existing tools at all and thus require the development of new tools;
- what WHO should do about this, when and how;
- who WHO's prime partners are in this work; etc.
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eHealth Strategy and Programme for the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)
Services provided:
- Conducted a desk review of the AKDN health programme and the potential added value of ICT to this effort.
- Interviewed selected principals of the AKDN programmes in health and relevant areas.
- Analysed the demand for, availability and potential use of, eHealth tools and services within the health agencies of the AKDN. (The iPath and iTeach platforms are the subject of a focused analysis and business plan. Other tools to be considered include, the Map of Medicine, the HINARI (where applicable), eLLuminate, eGranaries, etc.) The analysis covered:
- potential number and type of users – by profession and clinical discipline
- potential types of applications – diagnosis, treatment, types of diseases and conditions, education and training,
- anticipated uptake in terms of number of consultations, etc.
- Projected the future use of ICT-based tools and services within the health agencies and programmes of AKDN covering areas such as:
- improving the quality of health services;
- developing the capabilities of the health workforce;
- introducing health promotion/disease prevention at the community level;
- accessing health information;
- strengthening institutional capacity – health information systems
- Explored synergy with, and ways to leverage efforts in, other AKDN areas of focus
- education,
- economic development,
- rural development,
- civil society,
- micro financeand
- humanitarian assistance.
- Defined approaches to monitor and evaluate the AKDN eHealth programme
- Prepare an eHealth strategy document and programme elements with the usual components (see Annex 1), including preliminary ideas on costing information and how to implement the programme.
- Consulted with the Director, AKF Health, as necessary – to discuss progress and examine any interim/partial products, as appropriate.
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eHealth strategy for Mongolia
Technical assistance and support towards the development of a national eHealth strategy for Mongolia, following a process beginning with a country situation analysis
Services provided:
- Pulled together various initiatives from donors in the eHealth and telemedicine fields in a consistent way, with consideration to their objectives, their relevance to the needs, their added value, their sustainability, and how they fit within the Government’s policy and objectives;
- Integrated the concept of telemedicine into the current Mongolian context, and indicated how it can evolve within an e-Health development plan; specified in which fields, and how it can adjust to a changing environment as well as initiate changes and structure behavior;
- Proposed roles and functions for each of the stakeholders ensured that there was no duplication and/or waste of resource, and defining operations coordinating mechanisms;
- Assisted the working group and Information, Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Health in the finalization of the eHealth Strategy Document;
- Prepared a chart that all these projects should share, based, if they are found relevant, on the principles, which made the first phase of the cardiovascular project a success.
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Clarification of the "business environment" and identification of funding and collaboration opportunities for STI
Performed market analysis of the business environment to identify internationally well-known/ high profile institutions in the field of eHealth thematic and geographic concentrations, focussing on Europe.
Services provided:
- Funding opportunities: Identified and described various funding agencies, institutions, foundations, etc. that were likely to fund eHealth initiatives and where STI/SCIH would be eligible to receive funding, and taking into consideration institutions which would be interested in research, teaching or evaluation expertise.
- Partnerships/ alliances: Taking into account the various competencies within STI, identified institutions that are likely to qualify as complimentary partners in STI’s quest to expand internationally in the field of eHealth, and described the expected/projected benefits of the specific partnerships.
- eHealth software and applications: Provided a list of further software applications considered essential to supplement selected software packages listed in the draft strategy (preference given to open source software) according to the subspecialties, replete with description of typical application areas and the suitability for use in identified countries.
- East African Telemedicine & eLearning Network (EATEN): Commented on the concept paper (proposal) for above project and provided further planning inputs in terms of
- eHealth applications and expected benefits
- Resources and partner institutions
- Countries that are likely to be receptive as further partner countries.
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We represent the Medoctor application for its parent company
This company has developed a diagnostic health-care tool that can run on any web-enabled device, including cell phones and tablet computers.
To learn more about this application, view the product brochure (.pdf file), view the product demo (.mp4 file), or visit the company website.
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