Shortcomings of health surveys in developing countries

One of the difficulties that many developing countries face is poor information on the health status of their population, on the incidences of specific diseases and how they can relate the data from periodic health surveys to actual clinical information, arising from the operation of the health system.

One way of merging medical information with the demographic and health database is to have a much stronger focus on the individual. For instance, a patient who suffers from a particular disease can be tracked along with that patient’s health information. Other details, such as age, gender and provenance can be added and fed into the system to create a significant database.

Modern technologies have the scalability to provide the basis for Africa to develop country-congruent health policies that are locally applicable. Technological systems such as mobile telephony, the internet and biometric identification, which are appropriately implemented, have the capacity to empower individuals and encourage them to take care of their own health. Further, such technologies have the capacity to improve targeting, reduce fraud and increase access to healthcare. Technologically based healthcare strategies offer Africa an opportunity to leapfrog its ineffective traditional healthcare systems and begin to manage the enormity of its disease burden and, in turn, may benefit the whole world by demonstrating the benefits of patient centred healthcare.