technology

Universal access to health has been the buzz phrase for a few years now. When we think of this concept, we tend to think mostly of financial access, but it is much more than that.

Our system is currently skewed to providing financial access to health, which, in itself, is very important as it can be a great barrier to health-seeking behaviour.

We have been tackling the financial barrier with the no-user-fees policy and moved even further along with the recent signing of the consultancy agreement to begin work on the National Health Insurance Plan.

Traditionally, we think of going to a brick-and-mortar establishment when we want to visit a health professional either in a private practice or at a public facility.

But times are changing as access becomes more open with the development, implementation, and acceptance of health technology creating several options to remotely access healthcare.

Health sectors across developed and developing countries have long struggled with making improvements to infant and maternal health.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) for example, indicates that approximately 830 women die each day from preventable illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth with 99 per cent of these being in developing countries.

Worldwide these two indices are very high. For many lower socio-economic groups the problem is access to health care services. 

The proposed National Identification System (NIDS) has been the source of contentious debate for the last few weeks.

Jamaica is actually late in the game in providing some sort of system of this type to ensure a proper database of its citizens, which will improve the country's ability to put in place effective structures and programmes that will adequately capture the needs of the population.

The United States, for example, can track and manage its welfare services through the social-security number issued to every citizen at birth and kept until death.

October was celebrated as breast cancer awareness month and it brought into focus the very long-standing and urgent matter of the effect of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the Jamaican, Caribbean and world population.

Although most deaths each year are from these diseases, I do not get the feeling that people generally take the issue serious enough.

At a recent event, Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton indicated that it will cost the country more than $70 billion in the next 15 years to treat persons with NCDs.

Health care costs have the capacity to render persons bankrupt and is an expense that Government and all of us will have an interest in keeping as low as possible.

The United States (US) is a great example of how high health care costs can have a negative effect on individuals and health seeking behaviour.

I recently explained and referred to data as the 'new oil', and if we understand the true value of data and what it can do for health care then we would now know that there are boundless opportunities that we can carve out to improve service delivery, patient care and save lives.

Apart from tracking trends, deciphering where and when outbreaks may happen, medication being used by whom and in which geographic location, data provides a whole gamut of information we can use at a very personal level.

In this digital tech-centric world, data is king and it is time we, as a country, start mining data to underpin critical decisions. 

At its most basic, this is described as analysing a large amount of data to determine patterns and trends that may exist, with a view to finding solutions, forecasting and predicting future possibilities. 

Data mining can be one of the most profound tools used in any industry that seeks to understand clients and customers’ needs, wants, dislikes and any other pattern that they may establish. 

Many born into a generation of rapidly changing technology are able to seamlessly adapt to the almost per-second changes.

But there are many among us who do not quite have it so easily. Technophobia - the fear of technology - is real and is oftentimes seen in people afraid of using new technology.

With the pace of change, technology can, indeed, be very daunting. However, with the increased use of technology across sectors and many companies going digital, it is clear that technology is here to stay.

I remember back in late 2009, the National Blood Transfusion Service ran out of blood bags and had only expired stock that they could not use to collect and store blood.

Back then, it became quite a major issue primarily because, as a country, we have always had a problem with collecting sufficient blood in voluntary donations to satisfy the needs of our sick and those requiring emergency care.