Bridging the barrier of access to quality healthcare; the application of internet protocol cameras. (Case study: Kwahu Government Hospital, Ghana.)

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2016-09-28
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Over the past decades, there have been many rural initiatives towards healthcare delivery services, yet the health needs of many communities are still not adequately met. Residents of rural communities have poorer health facilities than residents in urban centres. In the Kwahu South District of Ghana, there are 222 communities with a total of 18 health facilities, 10 Chip compounds, 6 health centres and a private maternity home catering for a population of about 79,021. Data available at the District Health Management Team (DHMT) indicates that more than 50% of the residents are beyond the stipulated 3 kilometres away from a health facility. The road networks within these communities are very poor. The cost of treatment is also very high, these communities experience difficulties in recruiting and retaining trained medical and health workers. Due to the challenges facing the residents in these communities, this research work has examined how feasible the use of IP cameras will bridge the barrier between the rural and urban setting. The study made used of IP cameras to provide healthcare treatment to patients in rural communities by providing brighter, sharper and clearer live video images of patients to healthcare providers. These video signals are transmitted online through internet networks to an Expert outside the community irrespective of the location. The Expert then provides professional medical advice to the health worker. This study hopes to facilitate proper diagnosis and treatment on conditions of a patient beyond the knowledge of the health worker at the remote facility. Though initial cost of implementing the proposed system by this study may be high, the challenges facing the rural communities in accessing good healthcare will be overcome. This research integrates the use of ICTs’ into the health facilities thereby adding value to the use of telemedicine to solve a lot of problems in healthcare. The study findings recommend the implementation of this system into the health facilities in Ghana (ie GHS) to reduce the challenges faced by people leaving in rural communities in accessing healthcare.
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A Thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science Health Informatics, 2016.
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