Challenges Facing Adverse Drug Reactions Reporting and Counterfeit Drugs Monitoring

This chapter investigates in a case study the limitations of adverse drug reactions reporting (ADRr) and the challenges facing counterfeit drugs monitoring in the African developing countries with a focus on the Republic of Benin and proposes solutions to improve the adverse drug reporting method and infrastructures as well as the counterfeit drugs monitoring. The study aims at implementing an ADRr system using the m-health technology to overcome the limitations and ease the use of the “yellow card” in the developing world. Furthermore, a real-time notification system is provided to promptly disseminate among the populations any registered and proved ADR.

Early Detection Prediction and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases in People at High Risks of Communicable Diseases

The traditional screening for disease consists of medically testing individuals to detect diseases at an early stage. However, a screening or disease diagnosis is based on a patient-physician interview where patients answer the questions the physician asks him. It can be a direct (face-to-face) interview or an indirect communication by using a medium (video conference, phone, online web application, etc.). The traditional screening for NDCs presents certain limitations. Convergence of non-infectious and infectious diseases is not considered. This chapter proposes an innovative system and framework for pervasive/ubiquitous screening for early detection and prevention of NCDs in asymptomatic individuals at (tropical) infectious diseases risks. The proposed screening consists of pervasive sensing for physical, physiological, biochemical vital parameters, and quality of life by measuring the mental health, lifestyle, social, and climatic environmental modalities using the miniaturized wearable internet of things (IoT) systems and m-health application without activity restriction and behavior modification. It further determines the genetic/genomic predisposition and uses it for the prediction processing.

Novel Approach to Anticipate Emerging Infectious Diseases Spreading and Epidemics

In recent years, especially in 2014, Africa, as well as the whole world, has faced an Ebola epidemic. The facts have demonstrated the weakness of the global crisis management and limitation of existing diseases prediction, prevention, monitoring, and surveillance systems and policies. From 2015 until today, many studies have been carried out and systems have been implemented to improve the global infectious diseases monitoring. Most proposed monitoring systems consist of using wearable sensors for the remote sensing vital parameter in an individual. These monitoring systems are, however, limited. This chapter proposes a novel infection monitoring and prevention system using a hybrid crowdsensing paradigm to overcome the limitation of existing systems. The proposed system uses large-distance optical sensors (e.g., fiber Bragg grating sensors) for sensing bio-signals in individuals within (ad-hoc) crowds to anticipate any risks of emerging infectious diseases spreading or epidemics.

Challenges Facing Healthcare Delivery Systems in Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries

In the USA, there exist inequities in health delivery depending on whether you have healthcare insurance or not. People living in rural areas also are facing limited access to healthcare. The other high-income countries present, however, another picture. Healthcare insurance is mandatory and thus enables access to healthcare services. Nevertheless, these countries also face challenges such as the poor access to the healthcare services delivery in rural areas because of lack of general physicians. The cost burden is an important point that impacts the access to healthcare and care delivery to a certain group of individuals such as elderly people. The healthcare systems also are facing off-label-use challenges (see Chapter 5) that can also negatively impact the care delivery. In the low- and middle-income countries, the developing world, the poor access to healthcare services delivery is due to infrastructural, structural issues, and poor funding. Information exchanges and communication remain a challenge facing all public healthcare systems around the world, though at diverse level. This chapter aims at investigating the challenges facing the healthcare delivery systems around the world and proposing information and communication-technology-based solutions to tackle some challenges. The chapter further focuses on two case studies and generalizes the results and solution approaches to the other countries. For these purposes, the Republic of Benin, representing the developing world, and the Federal Republic of Germany, representing the developed world, are selected as study cases.

Towards Secure Off-Label Drug Prescribing and Improved Drug Supply

Worldwide, among healthcare professionals an uncertainty as to what medical uses exactly fall under the theme of off-label-use is noticeable. The lack of a common definition complicates the comparison of methods of resolutions in different countries. A current ambiguity is shown to cause false patient education and invalid informed consent, hence leading to liability concerns. Due to several legal restrictions in Western countries, healthcare professionals are facing more legal actions (lawsuits) than their colleagues in developing countries. The health systems in the developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are facing, in addition, severe drug supply issues. This chapter analyzes the issues from the viewpoint of the information and communication technology and proposes solution approaches.

Scale the Agility in a Multidisciplinary Remote Care Services Delivery System

The main objectives of healthcare systems are to provide healthcare services delivery to populations for health promotion, diseases prevention, and treatment. Healthcare systems can use the telemedicine paradigm or traditional direct care approach to deliver health services to the population. Healthcare delivery activities include simple activities, predictable (e.g., curing a small injury), as well as unpredictable, variable, and complex activities (e.g., heart disease treatment). Agile healthcare, learning from the agile software development methodology, seems to be an approach today to face the complexity of healthcare delivery. This chapter discusses how an agile paradigm can help to better coordinate healthcare delivery within the remote care system.