CeRAT

Many countries around the world suffer from poverty and that affect directly the access to health resources. Therefore, it is very important to find a way to make this access possible. Country e-Health Readiness Assessment Tool (CeRAT) is an example of how electronic transmission of data can aid in this emerging need. The authors validated this tool in order to assess the readiness of its use in 53 countries throughout the African continent. This study determined how well prepared were these countries to embrace the transmission of health information through technological ways and implement e-health solutions. The assessment included various aspects that ranged from population’s Internet/cell phone access to physicians and hospitals available. For the Low Income Countries (34), the result reflected that the majority have a stage 2 and 3 in readiness level, which means there is a lot that need to be done in order to integrate the informatics and communication technologies into play. The CeRAT was validated as an economical, practical, convenient and efficient tool by statistical analysis. The importance of such tool is to evaluate the readiness of the particular country to change from conventional health view to e-health. If the country is not ready, the efforts should be addressed toward enabling factors for e-health change. When the country is ready, e-health model can be applied, and this population will benefit enormously from “using the information and communication technologies for health”. This will improve overall wellbeing of the nations across the world, especially the more necessitated ones.   

Resource:

Chowdhury, M. F. U. (2009). Readiness to use e-health in africa---design, validation, and application of a country e-health readiness assessment tool. University of Calgary (Canada). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/304847160?accountid=6579 View this document in ProQuest