Mobile health (mHealth) systems empower health workers around the world, by supporting the provisioning of primary care outside of the health facility into people’s homes.

In particular, mHealth is used to collect health-related data about the families that they treat, replacing paper-based approaches for health surveys.

At a recent mHealth for Africa webinar hosted by C-Suite Africa in partnership with Welltrust, it was unanimously agreed that although mobile health data collection systems significantly improve the overall efficiency of primary health care, existing and proposed solutions lack adequate privacy and security safeguards in most of the African countries.

Speaking during the official opening of the 3-hour session was Immaculate Kassait, the Data Commissioner in Kenya and an Advocate of the High Court noted that the need to safeguard and protect data is very important as data protection is acknowledged as a basic right and must be taken into account by everyone.

She said, “The right to privacy is acknowledged as a basic right. In Kenya, the data protection Act has a decree to protect personal data as mandated by the constitution.”

She added that mHealth technologies have overtime become an intergral part of mobile primary health care with many useful capabilities and functionalities, albeit a few concerns related to data ownership, transfer, storage and usage. She further observed that such technologies have also enabled cross border data transfer, that must moving forward, be handled with adequate safety mechanisms.

Also speaking at the virtual session was Professor Bitange Ndemo, professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi who avered that the evaluation of the data protection regimes and engagement with key stakeholders will help to establish the extent to which countries protect their citizen’s health data.

“Public health professionals are developing the impetus for regulatory tools governing the migration of data,” he noted.

Mugambi Laibuta, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya spoke to the concers of ethics and regulation of medical data in the continent when it comes to use of technologies like Artificial Intelligence and the development of mHelath applications.

“AI needs to be regulated. Several cases have shown that AI works through the data it has been provided, with unlawful access to data that can be detrimental for the technologies involved,” he said.

Because mobile technology is widespread, governments and organizations are harnessing their power to collect, collate, transmit, and present data in a timely fashion, thereby overcoming barriers inherent in paper-based systems.

The rapid progression of technology enables the increased sharing of data between electronic systems. This can provide decision makers with valuable data and improve their ability to make critical decisions on health programs.

“As healthcare organizations turn to mobile devices to improve efficiency and productivity, many are introducing risks that could all too easily result in a data breach and the exposure of protected health information,” noted  Professor Pamela Andanda, professor of Law at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, Johannesburg.

Also in attendance was Paul Mbaka, Head of mHealth in Uganda, Professor Sizwe Mtuze, the International Coordinator of the African Centre for Cyberlaw and Crime Prevention (ACCP) based in Uganda, Dr. Sharifah Sekalala, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, UK, Dr. Shiko Gitau, CEO Qhala and Dr. Harriet Etheredge, Ethics and Regulatory Officer at the Donald Gordon Medical Center in South Africa among other dignitaries.