The marriage of information and communication
technology and health services is helping to solve the
problems that physicians and patients face every day.
COMMUNICATION,COLLABORATIONandTECHNOLOGY
by Frances Dare and Kaveh Safavi
Across Latin America, obsta- cles to health care access are similar. Beds are full, waiting
rooms overflow, and treatment delays are common. Creating equitable
access to health services requires addressing the ubiquitous challenges
of escalating demand, rising citizen
expectations and unrelenting pressure to do more with less.
One solution is to find better ways
of incorporating information and
communication technology (ICT)
into health services. That has been
the approach of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). In almost a decade of working with Latin
American health care leaders, Cisco
IBSG consultants have developed innovative health care approaches and
modeled the potential economic impact of programs supported by ICT.
In one example, IBSG consultants
worked with the Chilean Ministry of
Health to design a health program
for patients with chronic conditions.
The proposed three-phase program
began with call-center-based health
coaching by clinicians, followed
by community-based telehealth kiosks for early diagnosis and, finally,
devices for at-home patients for remote monitoring of health status.
Five-year savings from the program
were estimated to be $150 million.
Much of the recent innovation has
been the result of direct input from
providers themselves. They have
helped to identify where improve-
ment is needed and highlighted
promising solutions to the gaps in
quality and access. For instance, Cisco
IBSG focus groups with Mexican pe-
diatricians and obstetricians in 2003
highlighted the need for easy-to-use
reference information. One point of
consensus among the physicians was
that their top need is “quick answers
to clinical questions.” As one physi-
cian explained, “The most appropri-
ate thing would be to have an online
system accessible to all regions in the
country, providing good training to
general practitioners through spe-
cialist physicians available online,
24 hours a day.”
The “Map of Medicine” is a solu-
tion that responds to this concern,
providing clinicians with evidence-
based, visual decision paths for spe-
cific conditions or symptoms. When
faced with an unfamiliar case, clini-
cians can quickly reference diagnos-
tic questions and treatment options.
A similar Spanish-language reference
customized for clinical practices in
Latin America would have wide ap-
plication. To implement it, leading
health institutions need to endorse
or revise the procedures for follow-
up on common symptoms and then
make these solutions available from
