Business for South Africa’s (B4SA's) health workgroup has partnered with free digital health care platform Essential Medical Guidance (EMGuidance), which has launched a dedicated Covid-19 support channel for South African healthcare professionals (HCPs) in both the public and private sectors.
The Covid-19 platform will ensure South African HCPs, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and paramedics have ongoing access to resources, advice and support to help them navigate the many challenges they face at the frontlines of fighting the pandemic.
EMGuidance’s platform has a mobile and digital community of over 25 000 local HCPs. Over 50% of practicing doctors already use EMGuidance as do several thousand pharmacists, nurses and paramedics.
In addition, several medical societies, the National Department of Health (NDoH) and medical companies educate and communicate with the medical community through EMGuidance.
B4SA health workgroup chairperson Stavros Nicolau says the roles played by the HCPs at the frontline of the pandemic are profoundly important, especially since they are often the only line of defence between the uninfected and the virus.
“Our heroic HCPs face extraordinary hardships and, having access to appropriate and accurate information and resources, as well as support, gives them the ability and the confidence to face each day. We believe this digital platform will prove invaluable.”
B4SA will share information and guidance relevant to HCPs through the EMGuidance platform, which is only accessible by South African HCPs. It will also act as a two-way channel of communication with the HCPs, which allows the team to understand and address their concerns or questions.
B4SA and EMGuidance urge HCPs to participate in this collaborative effort by emailing info@emguidance.com.
The Covid-19 platform will provide four key support and resource channels, the first being a clinical updates channel. This will provide the latest South African Covid-19 clinical information, including NDoH alerts, digital guidelines, Covid-19 medicines information, local care coordination such as the location of Covid-19 testing sites, information on accessing and using personal protective equipment and links to other critical clinical applications.
The second channel is the mental health support channel, which will provide access to mental health support, through the South Africa Society of Psychiatrists, the South African Medical Association, the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists, the Psychological Society of South Africa and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group.
The third, the practice business support channel, will provide business resources, including advice on taxation, accounting and labour relations. This is provided in partnership with practice management companies and financial institutions.
The fourth channel is a chatbot, a dedicated machine learning platform which provides information based on NDoH guidelines and local care coordination information. In addition, a specialist pharmacologist is available online to provide guidance on Covid-19-related medicines queries.
EMGuidance CEO Dr Yaseen Khan says it is critical that South Africa rallies around HCPs, and does its best to support them. “Our role will be to aggregate and share the information needed in order to keep them safe and informed.”