KT, the leading Korean telecommunication provider, announced that it has launched its Global Epidemic Prevention Platform (GEPP) platform in Ghana.
The project, in conjunction with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), is the first public-private partnership between Korea and the West African country. KT said GEPP would enable the GHS to improve its ability to fight diseases in a more systematic manner. The platform is the result of a joint effort by KT and the Ghanaian government to advance Ghana's health information system using information and communications technology (ICT).
They signed an agreement last November to start the endeavor. GEPP Ghana has three functions: GEPP Public which warns Ghanaians who are visiting epidemic-prone areas; GEPP Clinic which enables the public to make real-time reports to health offices if an epidemic erupts; and GEPP Gov. which enables the government to gauge and monitor a public health crisis based on data collected from GEPP Public and GEPP Clinic.
Data is also collected from newly digitized airport immigration information, which until now has been manually compiled. The platform will help the Ghanaian public quickly respond to the current Ebola virus disease outbreak in Africa. As it will be much easier to report to health authorities during an outbreak, there will be a drastic improvement in early detection of the disease and response.
At the GEPP Ghana launch ceremony, KT gave a briefing on the platform produced by the Korean-Ghanaian public-private partnership, the big data-based quality health information service to benefit Ghanaians and the Ghanaian government's enhanced capacity for epidemic preparedness.