RESEARCH ARTICLE


The Disparity Information and Communication Technology for Developing Countries has in the Delivery of Healthcare Information



Prajesh N Chhanabhai*, Alec Holt
Health Informatics, Department of Information Science, University of Otago, New Zealand

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2010
Volume: 4
First Page: 195
Last Page: 201
Publisher Id: TOMINFOJ-4-195
DOI: 10.2174/1874431101004010195

Article History:

Received Date: 3/8/2009
Revision Received Date: 30/10/2009
Acceptance Date: 10/11/2009
Electronic publication date: 15/9/2010
Collection year: 2010

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© Chhanabhai and Holt; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Health Informatics, Department of Information Science, University of Otago, New Zealand; Tel: +64-3-4798316; Fax: +64-3-479-8311; E-mail: pchhanabhai@infoscience.otago.ac.nz


Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have merged into the world of healthcare slowly but surely. However, the marriage between the use of technology and its full impact in the health sector has not been fully realised. The focus of this paper is to highlight the impact of ICT on revolutionising access to healthcare information and thus quality of health for populations of the developing world. This paper highlights on the importance of being able to access health information and how traditional media methods have been utilised to allow this within a developing country setting, highlighting the clear digital divide. The paper then addresses the impact of convergent communication technologies and mobile technologies in providing a means of addressing existing healthcare problems within a developing country setting.

Keywords: Digital divide, developing countries, convergent communication.