ZN Healthcare will have the chance to increase access to healthcare in developing countries through its customizable eHealth solution, blueEHR, through a selection by Sanford Health on September 18th.
Sanford World Clinic is the global department of Sanford Health. The company originally sought to provide primary care services to children only, but, over time, its mission expanded into helping people of all ages and making healthcare more accessible to people around the world.
Sanford World Clinic chose ZN Healthcare for its innovative, customizable electronic health solution, blueEHR. The flexible nature of this program allows it to adapt to the needs of any country, enabling it to provide health services in poor, vulnerable countries.
Healthcare providers, staff, startup and IT companies currently use blueEHR in over 100 countries. The health platform includes infrastructure, compliance and application layers that feature ambulatory and acute care modules such as electronic health records, revenue cycle management, a patient portal, labs and radiology.
The founders of ZN Healthcare originally intended to serve the Revenue Cycle Management of medical providers, but they quickly realized that the software and technology for medical billing was outdated and required a new solution. They could see that technology was the future of medicine and could make healthcare significantly more affordable and accessible.
ZN Healthcare and Sanford World Clinic intend to implement the specialized electronic health records (EHR) solution in Africa and Asia first. Specifically, 20 rural communities in Ghana will be the first to receive blueEHR, with other regions of the country to follow.
BlueEHR will ideally increase access to healthcare in Ghana, a country that suffers from significant regional disparities in healthcare access. Ghana established the Ghana Health Service in 1996 to be responsible for the country’s healthcare system. In 2004, the country also set up the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to fund basic healthcare services.
However, few Ghanaians can actually take advantage of these services right now. The monthly cost of $0.66 is impossible to afford for the one-third of Ghanaians living on less than a dollar a day, and the $0.66 dollars does not even cover all treatments and medicines.
As a result, blueEHR has the potential to improve the lives of thousands of people in the rural communities of Ghana, making healthcare more affordable and efficient. The success of blueEHR in these areas could be an indication that eHealth solutions are the answer to the global problem of lack of access to healthcare.
– Lauren Mcbride
Photo: Flickr