Innovation and healthcare technologies
The new technological era offers great opportunities for improving medical care, especially in contexts with limited resources. The DREAM programme aims to guarantee excellence in diagnostics and in the technologies adopted, by encouraging the use of computerised equipment, specific software for data collection for operational research and for quality controls, and stable internet connections, in order to guarantee various types of support, coordination and management of personnel, also through teleconsultation services.
The use of new technologies in medicine opens up scenarios that were previously unthinkable, especially in contexts with limited resources. The DREAM programme has been using IT and technological support for years, including molecular biology laboratories, medical data, mobile technologies and geopositioning and solar energy.
In Africa we are still a long way from using computers everywhere. However, the reduction in the price of computers and the spread of computer literacy have eliminated the major barriers to the their use of a large scale, which makes it possible to think concretely in terms of computerised healthcare, in Africa too. Every medical clinic in the DREAM centre, even in the most rural areas, has a computer, an internet connection and specifically designed DREAM software for the clinical management of the patients, for controlling their adherence to the treatments, for the collection of epidemiological data, and in order to coordinate and support the staff.