Digitising the health system is a task we have taken on particularly in recent years as a nation and it has been incredible to see the tremendous improvement in communication within the different levels of the healthcare system. Our experience as Guild is filled with examples of what digital solutions do, from the excitement of a VHT owning a gadget to supervisors finally sighing about their job being made easy to saving the life of a child just in time.
We appreciate that this transformation in the health system requires a specific mindset for it to complete-a mindset of sharing. Health data and data in general are only useful when it is shared. The biggest percentage of health data should be accessible by all stakeholders in order to reach all the underserved communities aided by digital health solutions. The Ministry of Health together with private sector organisations having agreed on digitising as a strategy to improve the healthcare system must consider further opening up access to data sets in order to improve the reports produced and resources wasted in duplication of data. This effort will drive us to modified digital tools and hopefully to a point in time where our national reference medical laboratories shall also have a common place where reports
can be obtained easily in light of managing the next pandemics and disease outbreaks.
Better accessible data in the health system is critical to handling all health issues in a country like Uganda where Malaria-our biggest killer disease needs to be addressed within 24hrs regardless of how remote the person is. As Guild digital, we have set out to support and improve the quality of data to support efficiency and decision-making in the sphere of health, gender and many other realms using tools that are open source making them affordable to bridge the data gaps in any public or private system.
