The opposition often sit and wait for a change of government to reverse entirely or even abandon what the predecessor government has started.

An abandoned hospital project – Bekwai Hospital – in the Ashanti Region of Ghana sitting idle and wasting away. Image credit – myjoyonline.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

My penchant for following down the dusty fields in the middle of nowhere to seek understanding of why for sixty years we fail to have a system befitting of what one will call world-class healthcare, providing dignity and efficiency is what keeps me awake.

Like St. Francis’s, I speak up because I believe, I have a responsibility to be involved in dialogue around health innovation that would change the face of our healthcare delivery and improve quality of life.

Health Innovation; Let the Alleles Slug it out

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “of the many causes that shaped St. Francis’s actions, a primary one was the belief that his actions mattered, and that he had a responsibility to change the world around him. This belief, in itself, is a “cause.” The idea of free will is a self-fulfilling prophecy; those who abide by it are liberated from the absolute determinism of external forces. Chance”

A visit to any health facility in Ghana exposes how such a space is not a priority of our healthcare. To start with, basic information is obtained from new patients without any explanation given or consent sought, often in a crowded environment and within an earshot of many; ...

This Law is a Mint; Enforce it. Image credit - tripwire

In Umberto Eco’s view, “a book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. So the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.”

It is well known that our healthcare delivery system relies predominantly on a manual backbone. However, it is mind-boggling that the problem persists in an era of technological abundance.

Digitalising our Health Delivery System; A Necessity, not a Luxury

“Humanity does not suffer from the disease of wrong beliefs but humanity suffers from the contagious nature of the lack of belief. If you have no magic with you it is not because magic does not exist but it is because you do not believe in it. Even if the sun shines brightly upon your skin every day, if you do not believe in the sunlight, the sunlight for you does not exist.”