On Friday, October 27, 2017, The Integrated Healthcare through Evidence and Record for Developing Countries (IHEARDC) team met with His Excellency Dr. Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, Ambassador of Ghana to the United States of America to introduce the IHEARDC organization and its vision for Ghana as well as to discuss ways of collaborating with the Mission.

The IHEARDC delegation was led by Dr. Yeong-Tae Song (President, IHEARDC) and accompanied by Mr. Larry Aikins (Vice President, IHEARDC), Mr. Seth Abu-Bonsrah- (Board Member, IHEARDC), Dr. Jennifer Frimpong (Board Member, IHEARDC), Mrs. Vera Kuffour-Manu (Consultant, IHEARDC), Dr. Nancy Abu-Bonsrah (Brand Ambassador, IHEARDC) and Mr. Nat Kofi Abu-Bonsrah (Communications Director, IHEARDC).

Mr Seth Abu-Bonsrah in his remarks thanked the mission for granting the IHEARDC team audience. He stated that IHEARDC is a not-for-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland that is dedicated to improving healthcare by providing interoperable electronic health record system for the people who need care to ensure continuity of care, evidence-based treatment, and preventing medical mistakes.

He explained that after a keen feasibility study the group picked Ghana for a pilot to build interoperable cloud-based electronic health record system and an all in one clinical measurement device that is connected to a health records system. He explained that Ghana was picked because the country has in place the needed structures for the device to operate.

Dr Yeong-Tae Song offered a quick live demonstration of the electronic health record system device. The device is a portable machine which can operate on electricity and an attached lithium battery in any environment. The demonstration provided an opportunity for the staff of the embassy to ask some pertinent questions ranging from security of data that will be collected to possible commercialization of the device.

Mr Larry Aikins explained that IHEARDC is a registered not-for-profit organization that cannot engage in for-profit activities, therefore, the organization is in the business of providing a social service through its device to identified medical institutions. For this reason, the organization only solicits for funds to be used in the deployment and training of personnel that will use the device in the field. On security, Mr Lawrence Aikins who is cybersecurity expert indicated that the storage of patient’s information would be stored in the cloud by HIPAA/HITECH Compliance hosting services. The services provided support BAAs and encryption of data in transit and at rest.

H.E Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah was very grateful to the team for the laudable initiative which is expected to improve the health delivery system of Ghana and pledged his support. He said the Embassy can facilitate the engagement between the IHEADC team and the relevant stakeholders to get their buy-in for the initiative.

Present at the meeting were officials of the Embassy including Mrs Akosua Okyere-Badoo, Minister/ Economic and Diaspora, Mr Joseph Ngminebayihi (Head/Consular and Welfare) and Mrs Stella Akosua Ansah (Head/ Trade & Investment).