DIGITALIZING COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH INSURANCE IN ETHIOPIA

Background: It is the plan of the Ethiopian government in order to digitalize the health care system. Though the digitalizing of the health care system in the country is at its infant stage and some of the projects fail. Different challenges have contributed to this low implementation of ICT in most Ethiopian healthcare systems. Methodology: This study is a systematic type of review and the major source of articles used in this study were searched from databases such as PubMed, Scopus Google, Google Scholar, and other online databases. This study included eight studies that state the ICT implementation and related challenges in the health care system and community-based health insurance (CBHI). Results: This study has identified 14 challenges to implementing ICT in the Ethiopian Health care system; Age, educational status, computer access, personal initiation, infrastructure, computer skill, poor internet connection, budget shortage and management style, workload, patient interaction, Lack of e-government readiness, absence of multi-sectorial involvement and lack of enabling policies. Conclusion: This systematic review study underlined that poor ICT infrastructure, lack of computer skills, shortage of budget, Management style and lack of enabling policies were the most common challenges in the implementation of ICT in the Ethiopian health care system.