A Promising Hub For Digital Health: Kazakhstan

Sharing borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, you find the world’s largest landlocked country, the Republic of Kazakhstan. Conversely, with its population of over 18 million spanning across an area of 2,724,900 km², the country also has one of the lowest population densities worldwide, at less than 6 people per square kilometre. Being a relatively new republic and with its widespread inhabitants, Kazakhstan poses as an adequate hub for digital health to expand. Such a young republic’s ministry of health can develop around newer technologies and strategies brought forth with the advent of digital health like telemedicine to connect inhabitants of remote areas, mobile apps to allow patients to self-manage their health and robot-assisted surgeries for minimally invasive operations. In fact, these are already realities sprouting in the transcontinental country. A rural area in Kazakhstan. Source: http://www.euro.who.int/ While the Kazakhstani healthcare landscape seems to be on the right track to digital health, there are still challenges to be overcome. We interviewed Dr. Olzhas Abishev, Vice Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Mr. Yerbol Spatayev, Public Health and Informatization Specialist at the same ministry, to have a better picture of the adoption of digital health in Kazakhstan. Overcoming struggles “In Kazakhstan you get [universal health coverage] only if you are ready to pay for it yourself,â€...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Policy digital health digital health strategy health policy Source Type: blogs