LIGHT spreads from US to Europe

The Leadership in Global Health Technology (LIGHT) Online Resource Centre, a US-based coalition of health information and communications technology advocates, is expanding its focus into Europe and beyond, reports US correspondent Neil Versel.

The eHealth Initiative (eHI), a not-for-profit organisation that promotes ICT as a means of improving healthcare quality and efficiency, this month debuted the LIGHT Online Resource Centre to offer basic educational resources for health informatics professionals and implementation planners worldwide.

"As I survey the landscape, there’s nothing really out there like that," says Ticia Gerber, eHI’s vice president of international programmes and director of the LIGHT initiative.

eHI launched LIGHT a year ago and has been receiving overseas requests for information and assistance for three years, Gerber said. The Washington-based organisation selected World Health Day, 7 April, to unveil the new online programme.

The resource centre’s website is meant to consolidate information on global efforts to improve healthcare with the help of technology and serve as a clearinghouse for those developing and implementing ICT strategies.

"It’s a pretty broad initiative," Gerber said. "We’re getting people who normally don’t talk to start a dialogue."

The resource centre currently contains a summary of health ICT programmes by continent, but a detailed, country- and region-specific inventory of implementation strategies should be available by summer.

"It’s really designed to be a growing resource over time," Gerber says.

For the next six to eight months, LIGHT will focus on gathering and disseminating information from global "thought leaders" and eHealth Initiative members worldwide, Gerber says. eHI has promised that the programme will not favour one region over another and the strategic advice it provides will be "culturally appropriate."

To date, eHI has attracted significant attention from Asia and South America, and some African health officials have asked about how information technology can help in the battle against HIV and AIDS, according to Gerber. "The interest is more from regions than specific countries," she reported.

Gerber also expects that within a few months, the site will have more information on programmes to track HIV/AIDS treatment outcomes in southern Africa.

Meanwhile, the LIGHT Online Resource Centre is reaching out to Europeans. Except for the United Kingdom, the EU trails the US in terms of healthcare connectivity.

"We’re trying to get more involved with the EU," Gerber acknowledges. She says that the eHI recently has been in contact with health ministries, hospital administrators and technology vendors in Germany and Japan.

LIGHT held international educational summits in Geneva and Washington last year and conducts monthly teleconferences with interested parties worldwide. Gerber said that her office is planning meetings to aid health ICT implementation in Asia and South America, though specifics have not been finalised.

Links

E-Health Initiative