Dr Mohammed M. Ibrahim, the Director, College of Health, Yamfo (CoHY), has restated the college's commitment to training highly skilled health professionals to contribute to the technological advancements of healthcare in Ghana.

He said the college was devoted to guiding and mentoring students to sharpen their skills and talents while developing the right attitudes.

Dr Ibrahim was speaking on the theme: 'The Preparedness of the Health Trainee in Embracing Technological Advancements in Health' at the eighth matriculation ceremony of the college at Yamfo in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region.

A total of 731 students, including mature students were admitted to pursue degree programmes in Health Information Management, Community Health Nutrition, Community Mental Health and Physician Assistantship for the 2022/2023 academic year.

The breakdown of the respective population per the programmes is: Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Health Information Management, 183; BSc. Community Health Nutrition, 250; BSc. Community Mental Health, 197; and BSc. Physician Assistantship, 101.

Thus, the total student population is 2,442.

Dr Ibrahim said Ghana had invested in health but there was a huge gap that needed to be filled to achieve the desired improved health outcomes.

There was also the need to leverage technology as the demand to intensify the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) had increased in the last three decades.

'ICT presents several opportunities for improving the performance of health systems in developing countries. This has been demonstrated in several pilot projects across the developing world,' he said.

The availability of affordable and easy-to-use systems and equipment had contributed to several initiatives aimed at improving the effectiveness of healthcare providers, the efficiency of health system managers and new opportunities for healthcare consumers, Dr Ibrahim said.

As far back as 2005, Ghana developed a policy on information technology in health as well as a policy on e-health in 2010.

The introduction of an electronic health record for the country - the Lightwave Health Information System - offered an advantage to all health professionals, he said.

'Since health records can be tracked from birth to death, the onset of some mental health disorders may easily be traced'

Amid all those advanced technologies, there was the need for a workforce to help coordinate all the activities of the health professionals, Dr Ibrahim said, and that was where the health information officers were most needed to play their utmost roles.

Despite the telltale evidence of achievements chalked over the past two years, CoHY was still bedeviled with numerous challenges with the most worrying being lack of physical infrastructure, especially accommodation.

He said the inability of the College to accommodate all students had caused a ripple effect throughout the Yamfo and Susuanso towns, skyrocketing rent prices in the two communities and placing additional burden on students and staff.

Dr Ibrahim appealed to the Yamfo Traditional Authority and the opinion leaders to appeal to house owners to be considerate in their rent charges.

He called on stakeholders to help the College to improve on its physical infrastructure.

Source: Ghana News Agency