A 3-day Regional eHealth Hub Workshop titled “Building Partnerships to Improve eHealth Implementation” was organized on July 27-29, 2021 by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for its stakeholders from Ghana and across the West African Sub-Region.
Dr. Anthony Ofosu, Deputy Director General of GHS, indicated in his opening remarks that the healthcare system faces vast challenges that will increase in the years to come. One of GHS’ core goals and priorities is to see eHealth as a critical tool for addressing the challenges. He expressed his hopes and aims that the workshop would be the beginning of a better and more collaborative relationship with all stakeholders to achieve more in the area of eHealth for better health outcomes.
Dr. Samuel Kaba, Director of the Institutional Care Division (ICD) of GHS, indicated that the workshop was aimed at bringing together policymakers, health professionals, researchers, technical professionals, and other stakeholders from Ghana and the West African subregion who play major roles in eHealth policy or implementation. The objectives, he stated, were to raise awareness of the BETTEReHEALTH project activities, disseminate the outcomes of several project activities, plan activities for the West African Regional eHealth Hub and promote knowledge exchange.
Mrs. Sophia Kesewaa read a statement on behalf of Director Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) of GHS, Dr. Alberta Adjeben Biritwum-Nyarko. She stated that the Service is working hard to achieve a timely, seamless, and comprehensive health care system, and that every effort is being made to achieve this through the use of digital health interventions across the country. She went on to say that eHealth helps achieve universal health coverage in a variety of ways, and that it is also an important resource in primary health care. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health sector is seeing rapid integration of technology to support primary health care and essential public health functions. She concluded by stating that the workshop would build greater partnerships among health stakeholders, foster international cooperation, and allow experts in the digital health space to exchange ideas in order to improve their capacity.
Dr. E.A Odame, Director PPMED of the Ministry of Health, welcomed all stakeholders present for the workshop and urged them to work towards the achievement of the aims and objectives of the Better eHealth Project.
BETTEReHEALTH Ghana team made the presentations to introduce work packages of the project and updated on some completed activities.
This workshop saw speakers like Mr. Richard Okyere-Fosu, Director General of NITA, Mr. Sam Quarshie, Head of ICT GHS, Dr. (Mrs.) Oksana Debrah, ICD, Mrs. Frances B. Da-Costa Vroom, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Mr. Kwame Asamoah of Vodafone Ghana, Mr. Dominic Atweam of WHO and Prof. Anthony K. Edusei of KNUST among others who presented on various topics.
The West African Regional eHealth Hub was officially launched in the second day of the workshop by Hub Lead, Dr. Samuel Kaba. He introduced proposed activities of the Hub and announced that the next workshop was already planned for June 2022.
For more information, or to actively join the BETTEReHEALTH Regional eHealth Hubs and contribute to the Hub activities and participate in the Hub events, contact us at info@betterehealth.eu.
