The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsia Asare, has stated that Ghana will soon start using drones to transport food, medicine, and other supplies to people’s homes.
This would close Ghana’s telemedicine gap.
“You can even order food from the restaurant, you give them the GPS, they will survey the place through it, and they will come and deliver whatever you ordered hung by a string then the drone goes back to base.
“That is the future of medical distribution, especially drugs and prescriptions by Zipline in this way we can use it in the urban areas to serve people with their drugs.
“So, you do teleconsultation, your physician gives you a prescription, you pay it by POS system, and within a matter of 10 minutes it will be delivered,” he said.
This was revealed by Dr. Nsia Asare at the Accra College of Medicine (ACM)-hosted sixth West Africa Taiwan Health Promotion Conference.
According to him, Zipline Ghana and the government were working together to launch the system.
The theme of the two-day scientific conference is “Medical Education and Smart Medicine.”
It would enable Ghanaian medical professionals and experts from Taiwan to share knowledge to improve healthcare delivery in the country.
Dr. Nsia Asare emphasized how the construction of drone centers across the country has and is improving healthcare delivery, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He provided examples of how drones were effectively employed to send examination questions to remote locations for the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), resulting in the test commencing on time across the country for the first time.
Dr Nsia Asare stated that Ghana had taken the lead in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the delivery of medical and non-medical commodities, saying, “we are the largest drone distribution center for supply chain systems in the world.”
The goal of the broad field of computer science known as artificial intelligence (AI) is to create intelligent machines that are able to carry out tasks that normally call for human intelligence.
When it started in 2016, Ghana had six distribution centres, covering 13 of the 16 regions, and it planned to open two more to cover the remaining regions.
“So that is the future in the supply chain system and the use of drones in the medical transformation the country wants to do. Ghana is going digital, we are doing digital economy, and the healthcare system has not been left out,” Dr Nsia Asare said.
Professor Afua Hesse, the President Accra College of Medicine, said the West Africa Taiwan Health Promotion conference, held every two years, was part of the ACM’s long-standing cooperation with Taiwan.
She explained that the meeting allows Ghanaian medical practitioners to express the West African perspective, while the Taiwanese medical team provides modern health expertise.
Prof Hesse said technology had advanced to the point where the country needs to leverage for its development.
“So, the idea was to look at smart medicine and how AI has altered the way medicine is delivered as well as the challenges that it brings and the way forward,” she stated.
The President of ACM emphasized the importance of educating students about the potential of AI in healthcare. Dr. Yaw Ofori-Adjei, the Technical Director of Fairgreen Limited, stressed that AI has become an integral part of everyday life and called for a concerted effort from leadership at all levels to promote its meaningful use. He called for the development of a national strategy and policy manual for integrating AI into healthcare delivery.
During his presentation on “Smart and Innovative Medicine in Urology,” Taiwanese urologist Dr. Wang Shao Chuan discussed the application of AI in the treatment of prostate cancer in his country. He highlighted how intelligent AI applications had aided in making better medical decisions, enhancing doctor-patient relationships, streamlining administrative processes, optimizing service procedures, and reducing costs.