Tracking #Ebola Effectively hindered thanks to #ICD10 (double) delay

This graphic

Offers a timely reminder that the US Government delayed a second time the implementation of ICD10 coding system that is used in the rest of the world

There is no code for Ebola in ICD9 - just a non-specific 078.89: Other specified diseases due to viruses which covers:

Disease Synonyms
Acute infectious lymphocytosis
Cervical myalgia, epidemic
Disease due to Alpharetrovirus
Disease due to Alphavirus
Disease due to Arenavirus
Disease due to Betaherpesvirinae
Disease due to Birnavirus
Disease due to Coronaviridae
Disease due to Filoviridae
Disease due to Lentivirus
Disease due to Lone star virus
Disease due to Nairovirus
Disease due to Orthobunyavirus
Disease due to Parvoviridae
Disease due to Pestivirus
Disease due to Polyomaviridae
Disease due to Respirovirus
Disease due to Rotavirus
Disease due to Spumavirus
Disease due to Togaviridae
Duvenhage virus disease
Ebola virus disease
Epidemic cervical myalgia
Infectious lymphocytosis
Lassa fever
Le Dantec virus disease
Marburg virus disease
Mokola virus disease
Non-arthropod-borne viral disease associated with AIDS
Parainfluenza
Pichinde virus disease
Tacaribe virus disease
Vesicular stomatitis Alagoas virus disease
Viral encephalomyelocarditis
Applies To
Epidemic cervical myalgia
Marburg disease

ICD-10 has one specific code for Ebola: A98.4 - Ebola Virus Disease
Clinical Information
A highly fatal, acute hemorrhagic fever, clinically very similar to marburg virus disease, caused by ebolavirus, first occurring in the sudan and adjacent northwestern (what was then) zaire.

Accurate tracking and reporting stop at the border of the United States

This is one of many examples of codes "missing" in ICD9 for conditions and care we are already delivering and dealing with

Want to See #Mobile #Health Success - Look to #Africa #mHealth

I've said it before - Africa like many of the under developed countries is exploding with great use cases for mHealth. This piece: Kenya Has Mobile Health App Fever tracks the explosion of #mHealth.
Promoted and supported by the Kenyan Medical Association and Shimba Technologies the latest release MedAfrica offer ready access to medical information and verifying clinicians in the field and even a tool to verify the authenticity of drugs.

With over 50% of banking done by mobile phone in Kenya they are clearly adopting the platform in large numbers (Kenya is rich in mobile phones, with 25 million subscribers; Africa has more than 600 million of them). Applying #mHealth to the slew of health problems is exciting and rewarding. The size of and range of health challenges is daunting:

Many Kenyans have serious health problems; for example, according to the World Health Organization, more than 30 percent of children under age five show stunted growth. At present, only 7,000 doctors serve a nation of 40 million people. 

All this out of a company that was founded by Stephen Kyalo and Keziah Mumo, with $100,000 in seed money from a European VC

Seen here Steve Mutinda Kyalo

And its not just Kenya:

Mobile health platforms are making a strong showing in other parts of Africa, too. In South Africa, efforts include platforms that give HIV-infected patients automated ways to receive health information and reminders about upcoming doctor visits. In Johannesburg, 10,000 people infected with HIV have taken on these SMS-based alerts, resulting in big declines in missed appointments.
In Ghana and Liberia, a group called Africa Aid is experiencing strong success with MDNet, a system that allows users to call or text doctors for free. Since its founding in 2008, 1,900 physicians in Ghana have logged more than a million calls to patients, the group says.

Having real impact with that funding - awesome

‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika‘



You can take the boy out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of the boy