Thu, 21 Nov, 2024

E-education and E-health at IT4D

By Ruby Shrestha

With the primary themes of e-health and e-education, the second international conference on Information Technology for Development (IT4D), organized by Deerwalk Institute of Technology, was successfully held on 27th July 2014. The conference was attended by a number of academicians,  researchers, practitioners and development workers, associated with health and medicine, who shared their knowledge about how IT has been and can be beneficial in their disciplines of work. “E-education can be the most preferred option whether it be in restructuring higher education for mobile generation or in addressing the issues of quality of education or in other aspects concerning education amelioration. Furthermore, may it be in the field of telemedicine or in the amalgamation of electronic media with health works, e-health is indeed involved everywhere for betterment.” This was the general  message delivered at the conference by the speakers. The speakers predominantly emphasized that e-health and e-education are burgeoning disciplines of research and development and have remarkable scopes in the tech-inclined future generation. They showcased their subjects’ undeniable significance via their paper presentations which indicated that e-health and e-education have given way to laudable changes in the past and are expected to cater more commendable contributions in the days to come. Information about IT products that are currently utilized in the health sector of Nepal, such as the applications, EMR and Hospitals Nepal, and the devices to monitor health details such as blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors, etc., was effectively demonstrated by the speakers who were addressing the audience on e-health. EMR (Electronic Medical Record) which helps the medical personnels to track patient medical records over time and spot patients who are due for preventive visits, and overall, monitor and improve the health status of the patients, seemed to be a wonderful health app. In addition to this, android based app, Hospitals Nepal, that can execute offline and can assist the users in searching and connecting with doctors, hospitals and ambulances of their choice also seemed reasonable. Therefore, by giving examples of some plausible advantages of e-health, the speakers expounded the audience about how e-health can benefit the mass in battling against health issues and promoting good quality of health. Similarly, how e-education can help overcome educational barriers, that mostly the children of rural areas face, and how it can help children expand their knowledge base in the areas of their interest was discussed at the conference. The speakers notified the audience that the appropriate use of technology ensures high quality experience and can be scaled up to reach huge numbers of students. To add, learning is enhanced by instant feedback, interactive diagrams, online libraries and so forth was an appealing message shared by one of the speakers presenting thoughts on e-education. The conference, in its entirety, made the audience aware of a lot of options that can be made available through the use of e-health and e-education and made them realize that the promotion of good quality of health and education in this technically developing age is possible only through the blend of technology in them.