Loading...
Health information systems interoperability in Africa: service oriented architectural model for interoperability in African context
Author(s)
Kabaso, Boniface
Date Issued
2014
Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Abstract
Africa has been seeing a steady increase in the Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) systems deployed in health care institutions. This is evidenced by the
funding that has been going into health information systems from both the government
and the donor organisations.
Large numbers of national and international agencies, research organisations, Non-
Governmental Organisations(NGOs) etc continue to carry out studies and develop systems
and procedures to exploit the power of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) in public and private health institutions.
This uncoordinated mass migration to electronic medical record systems in Africa has
created a heterogeneous and complex computing environment in health care institutions,
where most of the deployed systems have technologies that are local, proprietary
and insular.
Furthermore, the electronic infrastructure in Africa meant to facilitate the electronic exchange
of information has a number of constraints. The infrastructure connectivity on
which ICT applications run, is still segmented. Most parts of Africa lack the availability
of a reliable connectivity infrastructure. In some cases, there is no connectivity at all.
This work aims at using Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to address the problems
of interoperability of systems deployed in Africa and suggest design architectures that
are able to deal with the state of poor connectivity.
SOA offers to bring better interoperability of systems deployed and re-usability of existing
IT assets, including those using different electronic health standards in a resource
constrained environment like Africa.
(ICT) systems deployed in health care institutions. This is evidenced by the
funding that has been going into health information systems from both the government
and the donor organisations.
Large numbers of national and international agencies, research organisations, Non-
Governmental Organisations(NGOs) etc continue to carry out studies and develop systems
and procedures to exploit the power of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) in public and private health institutions.
This uncoordinated mass migration to electronic medical record systems in Africa has
created a heterogeneous and complex computing environment in health care institutions,
where most of the deployed systems have technologies that are local, proprietary
and insular.
Furthermore, the electronic infrastructure in Africa meant to facilitate the electronic exchange
of information has a number of constraints. The infrastructure connectivity on
which ICT applications run, is still segmented. Most parts of Africa lack the availability
of a reliable connectivity infrastructure. In some cases, there is no connectivity at all.
This work aims at using Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to address the problems
of interoperability of systems deployed in Africa and suggest design architectures that
are able to deal with the state of poor connectivity.
SOA offers to bring better interoperability of systems deployed and re-usability of existing
IT assets, including those using different electronic health standards in a resource
constrained environment like Africa.
Additional information
Thesis (DTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2014
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
208199136_Kabaso_b_DTech_IT_fid_
Size
1.68 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):0cd7f664545412bb9129959f5b7597cb