At the opening of the 7th East African Health and Scientific Conference at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in the business capital Dar es Salaam, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzanian Vice-President encouraged the East African Community (EAC) member countries to invest in digital technology to increase and boost execution of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Digital health technology stood a better chance of strengthening regional healthcare services and addressing all aspects of poverty.
She said Tanzania has already begin on digitizing its healthcare system through the Ministry of Health and several other agencies to help track medicine consignment from purchase point to delivery point and online reporting of the adverse effects of the use of medicine and cosmetics.
she also told, “We have recorded positive impact of our healthcare sector since we embarked on digitizing our systems.”
Gibson Kibiki, the Executive Secretary of the East African Health Research Commission, said digital health technology could improve health governance as well as access to quality and effective delivery of health services.
Kibiki added that over the last 15 years, east Africa has witnessed an expansion of digital health across the entire health sector.