Assessment of the EAC E-health Readiness & Regional Health Interoperability

EAC & Digital REACH

Momentum for digital health in the East African region has been growing steadily. Specifically, the EAC has been engaged in leading several regional initiatives on digital health. In 2010, the EAC convened a Regional eHealth Workshop and Ministerial Conference for member countries to share experiences and insights on how to move eHealth forward in the region. As a follow-on to the inaugural conference held in 2010, the East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat and partner states, convened the 2nd EAC Regional eHealth and Telemedicine Ministerial Conference in Kigali, Rwanda in May 2018. At the close of the two-day conference, attendees concurred that EASTECO, in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat, East African Health Research Commission (EAHRC), partner states’ national science and technology commissions, and sectoral councils and partners, would do the following:

1. Conduct an EAC regional eHealth readiness assessment incorporating aspects of systems interoperability, costs, and benefits of eHealth investment by December 30, 2019
2. Promote the incubation of local digital health solutions and submit progress reports to relevant sectoral and ministerial councils every two years
3. Coordinate the development of regional policies, laws, regulations, guidelines, and standards on health facility and patient safety, data sharing, data security, and privacy to facilitate eHealth in country, as well as cross-border patient referrals within EAC partner states, by June 2020
4. Take leadership in convening the biannual EAC Regional eHealth and Telemedicine Ministerial Conferences, and associated workshops and international exhibitions, on a rotating basis among the partner states each year in the last week of October; these conferences will be part of the meetings of the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers, which is responsible for health in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat, EASTECO, EAHRC, and EAC Regional Center for Excellence for Biomedical Engineering and eHealth

Furthermore, in 2018 the EAC launched the Digital Regional East African Community Health (Digital REACH) Initiative, whose mission statement is to “Maximise the power of digital health in East Africa by ensuring an enabling environment and by implementing scaled, coordinated, transformational, and innovative approaches” through a shared roadmap for creating a regional enabling environment for digital health. The roadmap consists of nine workstreams, in which responsibilities are divided for the region and partner states. The work streams are the following: organization formation and management; health programs; infrastructure; services and applications; leadership and governance; strategy and investment; legislation, policy, and compliance; workforce; and harmonization, standards, and interoperability. The premise behind the regional initiative is that regional ownership and development of some key components of the enabling environment for digital health will help partner states reduce costs by sharing those services that can be shared; for example, hosting common technology components on a shared cloud; standardizing digital health training; and aggregating demand for certain services, such as telemedicine. The initiative also will help develop the enabling environment, including policies, to facilitate cross-border data and information sharing.

Report for the Assessment of the EAC E-health Readiness & Regional Health Interoperability