Editorial

Medical information systems: A foundation for healthcare technologies in developing countries

Gari D Clifford^1,2 , Joaquin A Blaya^2,3 , Rachel Hall-Clifford⁴ and Hamish SF Fraser^3,5

¹Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

²Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

³Partners In Health, Boston, MA, USA

⁴Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

⁵Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

author email corresponding author email

BioMedical Engineering OnLine 2008, 7:18doi:10.1186/1475-925X-7-18

Published:	11 June 2008

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

Economic disadvantages in developing countries have resulted in health care per capita spending that is almost two orders of magnitude lower than in developed countries [1]. In addition, tertiary-care hospitals in developing countries typically consume a large proportion of overall health care spending, and less than a quarter of government spending is devoted to public health measures and clinical care in primary care settings [2,3]. Community-based care has the capacity for further reaching impact and has been shown to be effective in treatment and monitoring of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), tuberculosis (TB), and maternal health in resource-poor settings [4-7]. Reliance on community-based care is likely to become even more important as large-scale, chronic disease management is required for HIV and tuberculosis care in settings where acute care or no care at all, is the norm.