Senegal is fully committed to digitizing its entire healthcare system. In a bid to achieve its goals, the government is multiplying its initiatives in collaboration with all the stakeholders in the sector. 

Senegal's state-owned digital infrastructure company, Sénégal Numérique SA (Senum SA), and the Ministry of Health and Social Action signed an agreement on Tuesday to speed up the digitization of the country's healthcare system.

According to Cheikh Bakhoum (photo, left), CEO of Senum SA, the agreement encompasses various activities, including the domestic hosting of health data, which was previously stored abroad. The data will now be housed within Senegal, specifically in national resource centers.

Under this three-year collaboration, Senum SA will aid in the execution of all digital projects within the sector, host data in the national data center, and enhance connectivity for healthcare facilities, among other tasks. The company will also augment the hosting capacity and bandwidth for digital health records, including the shared patient file (Dpp), telemedicine, the hospital information system, the geographic health system, the digitization of medicines, community health processes, and electronic health governance.

The partnership aligns with the 2023-2027 healthcare system digitization program (PDSS), a government-led initiative. The program, which has received significant financial backing from the World Bank to the tune of $50 million, coincides with the country’s efforts to construct data centers dedicated to storing and hosting national data. The most recent addition to this infrastructure is a Tier 3 data center, established in Diamniadio.

Samira Njoya