Evaluating ICT potential for improving health information quality in Africa

Nowadays, ICT development in Africa is making rapid progress offering huge economic and social benefits for the continent. Yet the lack of quality and sustainable information in a number of development areas - especially health care - remains a real issue. Assessing the impact of ICT at the country macro and micro levels using suitable evaluation tools is thus necessary to aptly address the question of information quality improvement, and to reinforce positive impact of ICT on economic and social development in Africa. While a number of composite indices have been designed to estimate the ICT readiness at country level, they fail to reflect direct impact of ICT on the development of a nation. This paper employs Kauffman and Kumar's input-output model to measure the impacts of ICT on health care in Uganda using the data from a local health clinic and the related World Bank Indicators. ICT is found to have a positive effect on health care development in Uganda on macro level. Yet, its impact largely depends on the level of political stability, regulatory quality, and government effectiveness. Community level analysis offers a `snap-shot' picture of health management in rural Uganda, where the issues of accessibility, utility and quality of information are still present. The study concludes with an outline of the opportunities for greater research collaboration between Europe and Africa around the identified by this study issues.