KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

FACULTYOFENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING IN MECHATRONICS AND BIOMEDICAL

ENGINEERING

COURSEUNIT: Networking and Information Systems in Medicine

TEMB 3208B

LECTURER: Mr. JULIUS MUGAGA

ASSIGNMENT

GROUPWORK

NAME REGISTRATIONNUMBER
KINENE IAN GARVIN 18/U/BIO/339/GV
SSEKITTO JOEL 18/U/BIO/6416/PD
MUKISA FAITH PATIENCE 18/U/BIO/6387/PD
The national insurance plan is a policy that provides preset benefit packages to individuals that will
be financed by all Ugandans when fully implemented.
Filling form: An insurance application form is provided to all individuals who fall under the
category of citizens that are included in the insurance plan for example those employed under
government, those employed under private sector, these self-employed individuals among others.
This can be provided on an online platform of through the company head office. The form is
submitted to an insurance agent who either rejects or assesses the form depending on whether it has
been not completely filled or fully filled respectively.
Assess form: On assessing the form, it’s evaluated basing on a criterion which is basically the
requirements that need to be met by the citizens for one to qualify for the insurance plan. The
requirement could be the employment status of the individual, the average employment age. If the
criteria are met, the form is accepted and is rejected in case the criteria are not met.
Accept with provision: There are special cases where the form is accepted even when two or more
criteria are missing for example as scenario where by an individual is not employed but has a stable
source of income or is under age but employed among other situations.
Accept form: On accepting the form, an invoice is issued to the employer containing the payment
plan on a yearly basis for the policy duration and the policy is issued to the applicant/citizen.
Delivery: Here a claim is made and the insured is covered by the insurance policy he/she is insured
against. For example, for health insurance where the person can be treated in any government or
private hospital and payment is covered by the insurance body.
 Question two
1. Respond to the author’s points first by exploring how the ideas, arguments, or
findings
Author suggests that Government policies that favor the development of ICTs in general
are positively related to telemedicine capabilities as they facilitate advancement in telemedicine.
 Policies specifically tailored to ensure data security and standards suggested by the author
as being positively related to telemedicine capabilities is true since privacy, security, and
confidentiality are key factors in healthcare delivery across distance or via internet.

 Policies specifically tailored to promote the application of ICTs in healthcare are positively
related to telemedicine capabilities as these policies have been devised specifically to
encourage its development and implementation.
 It’s also true that Reliable and readily accessible ICT infrastructure is positively related to
Telemedicine capabilities as mentioned.

2. Next, take a more critical stance and look for gaps in the argument. Raise
questions or discuss any doubts you have about what the source says.

 The sources reference to Craig and Patterson’s (2005) note that one of the two reasons for
the implementation of telemedicine in developing countries would be because there are no
other alternatives should not be used. Developing countries must look at Telemedicine as a
development in the healthcare sector.
 The benefits of Telemedicine should not be based on literature that is not well documented
and proved through scientific research such as the source’s claim that telemedicine offers
reduced costs, improved efficiency in healthcare which is not well documented.
 The source’s use of quantitative research basing on data obtained from the internet and use
of post does not account for accuracy of the information as only a small target group is
obtained due to low level of ICT infrastructure in SSA and also telemedicine is a relatively
new concept so the population should have first been sensitized before carrying out the
survey.

3. What evidence from the article seemed most convincing to you and why? Bring in
examples from the text to support your points.

 With only 3% of the world’s health workers, and spending less than 1% of the world’s
health expenditure (Kifle, etal.,2006), it’s evident that telemedicine can be implemented in
the Sub-Saharan Africa due to its documented benefits in resource constrained healthcare
contexts.

 Telemedicine seems unable to thrive where ICT infrastructure is scarce which is true for the
SSA region. Due to various socio-economic and political problems faced by most countries
of Sub-Saharan Africa, the region is reported to have the lowest levels of most ICT-related
infrastructures in the world (Goodman, 1991; Mbarika, 2001, 2002).
 It’s true that in most SSA countries, there is a rationale for adopting an innovation, and in
the field of healthcare, it is often based on some evaluation of a pilot project, even though
most of the claims (cost cutting and efficiency) are not well documented through scientific
research (Wootton, etal.,2000; AHRQ2001)

4. What evidence is least convincing and why? Bring in examples from the text to
support your points.

 An estimated 70% of SSA populations live in rural areas which have no access to, or are far
from, health facilities, resulting in over 65 % of SSA population lacking essential healthcare
services, healthcare investments and retaining healthcare providers. This is not necessarily
true as industrialization has encouraged rural urban migration and also the development of
rural areas as governments try to stop this habit by developing these areas in terms of
healthcare services, jobs, education among others.

 Craig and Patterson’s (2005) note that one of the two reasons for the implementation of
Telemedicine in developing countries would be because there are no other alternatives as
there a real ways alternatives and Telemedicine is adopted in developing countries
healthcare as advancement in technology instead.

 According to (WHO, 2004), most national governments have developed ICT policy for
healthcare though implemented differently per country, but this is not true for most
governments in SSA.

5. How does the source change your thinking on the topic?

 The document gives us a better understanding of how telemedicine would impact the
healthcare sector if we implemented it in our communities basing on the various arguments
by the source on the advantages of Telemedicine in terms of accessibility and cost reduction
in healthcare. Initially telemedicine seemed more impractical when it comes to SSA due to
the level of ICT infrastructure, cost of internet and network coverage.

 Initially, we viewed telemedicine as a complex use of robotics and out source of healthcare
professionals to perform surgical operations via a network instead of a rather simpler means
of a patient being able to consult with a doctor via a cell phone or even receiving a report or
diagnosis or even making appointments without having to travel to the hospital.


6. What do you understand better now that you have read this source?
 We understand that Telemedicine systems require a real commitment of all the Involved
parties, especially support from governments, physicians who must own the system;
therefore, their involvement is important in the development and implementation of the
project.
  We also understood that for Telemedicine to be a success in the Sub-Saharan Africa it is
highly desirable for the government to improve on its policies for access, costs and
availability of the internet especially in rural areas.

 To implement telemedicine, factor such as standards and security are an important, the
technology should be user-friendly, and users must be well trained and supported for it to
function effectively. Economic sustainability for long routine practice and maintenance of
the equipment is also important, education in medical schools and arrangements of seminars
and workshops for specialists in the use of technology is necessary.

7. How does the source compare with other things you have read on this topic?
Basing on our previous knowledge about systems related to telemedicine such as imaging systems
like Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) that utilizes the Digital Imaging and
Communication in Medicine (DICOM) as a communication standard, Telemedicine basically uses
the same approach to improve on the healthcare delivery.
8. After reading this article, what other possibilities for research do you think exist
regarding this topic?
Research should be done on protocols and standards to be used by Telemedicine since once the
two parties are in different locations, different laws may apply which may limit the full extent of
Telemedicine.
There is possibility of looking further into detail on the impact of a transfer model of
Telemedicine on a particular country in the Sub-Saharan African region instead of generalizing
the entire Sub-Saharan Africa.