Towards an ICT framework to support a patient-centric approach in public healthcare: A case study of Malawi

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing a significant role in the delivery of healthcare services in both developing and developed countries. However, there is a concern that health Information systems that have been deployed in a developing country such as Malawi provide poor data sets. The data produced from these systems is inconsistent, incorrect and not timely. As a result, decisions are made without the use of data from the system. Patients are not yet embracing such ICT interventions, thus not taking ownership of their health care. Although, there are several m-health pilot applications in use, health applications in Malawi are still at a low level of maturity. This paper seeks to investigate the need for healthcare systems to be patient centric and what the process is to determine the requirements of an ICT framework to support the patient centric approach. If this is achieved, the result can be that health consumers will be expected to be more active participants in their own care. It is also envisaged that the ICT framework will be used as a reference in the implementation of ICT interventions in the public healthcare sector with the emphasis on the patient rather than the healthcare provider.