The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ghana Health Service and technology giant Samsung have partnered to digitizing healthcare in rural communities using touchscreen tablets.

The project which goes to hard-to-reach communities is also through the collaboration with Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Good Neighbors (a Korean NGO).

Under the partnership, the e-Tracker - a tablet-based tool was developed to allow health workers to electronically collect and analyze health records.

The transition from the manual (paper and pen) to digital records will enable the Ghana Health Service to better manage patient cases and promote efficiency in data management.

On February 1, 2018, the development partners launched the e-Tracker and handed over 2,590 tablets to the Ghana Health Service, which will be distributed across the Upper East, Eastern, and Volta Regions.

At the launch event, the Ghana Health Service Director General, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare gave the keynote address and the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Melinda Tabler-Stone delivered opening remarks.

U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Melinda Tabler-Stone

The Korean Ambassador, H.E. Sung Soo Kim; KOICA Country Director, Yukyum Kim; and the Managing Director of Good Neighbors, Ilwon Seo; were in attendance.

U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Tabler-Stone highlighted the challenges that Community Health Officers face.

“Daily, they travel from one location to another while encountering difficulties in transportation, attending to numerous patients and carrying heavy register books.

“The e-tracker initiative seeks to change this paradigm by moving away from manual registers to the real-time tablet-based digital registry,” she said.

The e-Tracker aligns with the government’s development agenda to boost the country’s journey toward full digitization.

It relies on the District Health Information System, whereby health facilities enter their summary reports into an electronic database.

This enables health workers to enter information on a tablet that automatically feeds into the district database; reducing inefficiencies in data capture, recall bias, and inaccurate reporting.

USAID has contributed $2,000,000 through technical assistance; while Samsung Corporation has contributed a matching $2,000,000 through the procurement of tablets.

KOICA facilitated the collaboration between USAID and Samsung.