1/15 WHY adoption of Health-ICT & strengthening of health systems would have been the much needed silver lining to the KE-Corona response strategy as explained in the politics ridden delayed Kenyan Health Digitisation Project#COVID19Kenya @sevenseastech https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2001366069/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-medical-equipment-scheme

2/15 Background as explained in the article depicts a clear position how @sevenseastech got here.Any Co local or foreign committing $35M upfront to be recovered over 5yr period would be nutter to try execute the same without a guarantee of some sort&the fastest way to go bankrupt

3/15 Lets assume the people delegated with authority didn't play unnecessary politics & had noble intentions to deliver to 48M Kenyans a working digital health system that would deliver compounded value to the healthcare eco-system . Let us paint the KE dream 2 yrs later 2017-19

4/15Feb/2020 Corona Virus is announced as a global Pandemic. Some countries have handled it well others have struggled. Kenya is yet to fully see the steep side of the curve.We Pray. Would adoption of digital health in public health have given us an edge in managing the pandemic?

5/15 Precision of Clinical Data-Data documenting the spread & effects of the virus should have been standardized as possible across countries & followed the progression of the virus &its containment at both County and hospital level. The need for data cannot be underestimated.

6/15 Widespread & unnoticed diffusion of the virus in the early cycle may need to be facilitated by epidemiological capabilities & the ability to systematically record anomalous infection peaks .More info on the Italy experience & role of data available on https://hbr.org/2020/03/lessons-from-italys-response-to-coronavirus

7/15 Accounting for the hospital infrastructure in (use/not in use) required including ICUBeds,ventilators would have been available instantly enabling planning & quickly putting mitigation plans while encouraging private players to subscribe to the Public health digital platform

8/1Patient data collection(Potential,tested,Infected,under treatment,deceased)would be captured in a national MPI/EMR/EHR database while connecting to the Huduma No.3rd Party Solutions whether on App,USSD would seamlessly integrate to enable realtime citizen infection monitoring.

9/15 A National data driven Command &Control Center while briefing the cabinet ,press & nation instills confidence that data is not biased.Cognitive bias can only be dealt with this way managing skepticism by both the public & many in policy circles.

10/15 Resource management through integrated supply chain from KEMSA to all core hospital facilities including management of donations would have end to end visibility to the patient leval .This transparency encourages more people/corporations/Governments to donate to the cause.

11/15 Health Personnel engagement would be real time including monitoring of health personnel at the forefront of fighting the pandemic.Incentivising the teams on the ground would be much easier & almost realtime enabling other parties to come on board to support the cause .

12/15 Information dissemination to all Health Personnel on the ground would be coordinated though mobile,& on ground E-learning .Pandemic information can be overbearing & needs to be channeled through curated channels especially to health professionals .They too need visibility .

13/15 The Corona Pandemic is not kind to patients with pre-existing chronic conditions e.g TB,Dialysis,HIV,Cancer among others.Maintaining a current national database would help isolate & communicate to these patients immediately so as to manage their contract with the virus .

14/15 KE's mantra as the silicon savannah stands to reap big if an open API digital health platform was in place.Many innovators are hungry to make impact and an open API digital platform would enable their platforms to pivot quickly while leveraging on already deployed ICTinfra

15/15 Leadership matters .CS Mutahi Kagwe has the political/private/public sector mindset +ICT innovation background.The TEAMS Fibre project was a major breakthrough that required significant foresight then.With that insight may God give him the strength to deliver this vision.

Conclusion:H.E Uhuru UHC vision will be delivered in next decade by CS Kagwe & the rest after him.Long term partnerships with private sector will be essential. Should a major catastrophe or disaster push us into motion ? If the Corona Pandemic doesn't I am not sure what will.

We also need to realise there are no quick fixes and as my famous online friend & brilliant mind @kenyanpundit says we cannot entrepreneur ourselves out of every situation with short term solutions and bandaging. Automating public health is a long term game & very strategic .

To quote from the Bible, 'Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country' (John 4:44). Christ also said 'no prophet is accepted in his home town' (Luke 4:16-30), and 'Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honour' (Matt)