News and Events

The University of Botswana (UB) recently co-hosted the 12th Health Informatics in Africa (HELINA) Conference with the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MTC), and the Botswana Health Information Management Association (BoHIMA) from the 20 - 22nd November 2019 at the UB Conference Center. The conference was held under the theme “From evidence to Practice: The Implementation of Digital Health Interventions in Africa for Achievement of Universal Health Coverage”.

The goal of the HELINA 2019 conference was to bring together all stakeholders to discuss issues related to the field of health informatics and eHealth (all commonly referred to as Digital Health), Big Data and Telemedicine in Botswana. The HELINA 2019 conference also hosted workshops on Data Science and Use of Drones for Healthcare Product/Service delivery on the 19th November, 2019.

When officially opening the conference, Honourable Minster of Health and Wellness Dr Lemogang Kwape stated that the eHealth environment in Botswana has been developing over time. ‘‘We recently finalized an eHealth strategy, which is a great opportunity to ensure that eHealth contributes to strengthening the health system and health outcomes for our people’’ he said. He further stated that the field of digital health is fairly new in Botswana and brings opportunities for employment creation locally and abroad. He added that with well researched and validated digital health platforms, there are opportunities for home-grown solutions for the local e-Health landscape. Read more...