An information system to support telemedicine projects in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Telemedicine is a rapidly developing field in the medical sector that utilises modern day technology to provide improved health services to rural and remote areas. Telemedicine can also provide specialist support and remote consultation to facilities where there is a lack of resources. In South Africa, where a large percentage of the population live in rural and remote areas, telemedicine has the potential to alleviate the burden on national health resources, whilst improving the quality of healthcare.Various telemedicine projects have been piloted in South Africa from its inception in 1998, with the primary objective being to address the inequalities of healthcare delivery in South Africa. Most of these projects did not get past their initial pilot phase. It is often difficult to determine the factors that contribute to a telemedicine project's success or demise, due to the unavailability of documentation for projects.The purpose of this research project is to contribute towards sustained implementation of telemedicine projects, by assisting the Medical Research Council (MRC) in their current efforts. This has been done through the development of an information management system which can record and store relevant information regarding telemedicine projects in South Africa. The system allows users to document telemedicine projects, whilst also giving them access to technical- and descriptive information.A total of 102 projects from the international academic domain were used to perform a meta-study, in order to determine the nature of telemedicine projects. Articles documenting various telemedicine projects were selected from the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare. The telemedicine process data was then extracted and uploaded from these articles to the first version of the information system developed in this thesis. The meta-study was also used as the first phase of verification for the information system being developed.Changes were made to the information system after the meta-study was completed. These changes included alterations to the database and the interface of the information system. Additional tables were added to the database of the information system, to store the data required by the MRC, in order to document telemedicine projects in South Africa.The verification of the information system consisted of two testing phases. The first testing phase, the alpha test, was performed as part of the meta-study. The second testing phase was conducted after changes were incorporated into the information system, as necessitated by the alpha test and meta-study. In this phase of testing users could access the information system via the Internet.The information system was validated in two phases. Firstly it was shown that the information system met the objectives set out for this project. Secondly it was shown that the information system has the capacity to assist in planning, development, implementation, and research through retrospectively examining two telemedicine projects in which Dr. Sam Surka (senior scientist and clinical manager at the MRC) was involved.Outcomes of the project indicated that the information system is a useful tool for identifying similar telemedicine projects, and for assisting stakeholders in telemedicine projects.Finally the research process was reflected upon to identify future work in terms of collecting telemedicine process data, as well as the assistance of telemedicine research within the South African context

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University