Summary:

Improving the delivery of health services to the majority of South Africans is a key challenge faced by the SA government in the 2nd decade of democracy.Information& communication technologies(ICT)are an enabler that can enhance the ability of the public service to adequately address service delivery backlogs, while providing citizens with a range of more creative options for accessing services.Amongst the many ICT options available to govt to improve the efficiency& effectiveness of its delivery process,mobile & wireless technologies offer some exciting opportunities for a low cost,high reach service.There is strong evidence that mobile technologies could be instrumental in addressing slow response rates,of govt to citizen requests,poor access to services,particularly for low-income and marginalised populations in under-serviced rural areas.In addition,mobile technologies offer significant opportunities for improving the back-office operations of govt.In the SA context,medical institutions-hospitals & clinics-all operate on different systems for gathering & maintaining patient information.In addition,many primary healthcare clinics located in the rural areas do not have any electronic systems at all & continue to operate paper- based systems,resulting in patient records being kept by patients themselves. The impact of the use of multiple systems is that it is difficult& costly to develop a national overview of patient statistics.On a more basic level,it is extremely difficult for idividual institutions within the healthcare sector to share information between each other.One of the clearest examples of this is to be found in the sharing of patient laboratory results.Currently in most instances,this only takes place through manual exchange.Govt identified the Dokoza pilot as one that could enable electronic data-sharing in a manner that enhances the ability of the health worker.