docPHONE MANUAL
This is the manual for docPHONE system designed and developed by Dr Ananda Perera.
6. MEDICAL SELFCARE - INTRODUCTION
ABOUT
247econsult is a website designed, developed and maintained by a group of Sri Lankan doctors for Sri Lankan patients.
SERVICES
All our services have three common overarching principles : MEDICAL SELFCARE, EMPOWERMENT AND ENGAGEMENT.
Medical Self Care :
WHO says the medical selfcare is :
Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider (WHO 2019, Hatch et al 1983)
Key facts extracted from WHO website as relevant for what we are doing (WHO 2021) :
WHO concept : Tools are required to support medical selfcare.
247eConsult Tools : Apps for many medical selfcare requirements : dieting, exercises, vaccines, symptom checkers, pregnancy and newborn care,
WHO concept : Tools are required to support coping with illness and disability
247eConsult Tools : Apps for Illness Automation System - see details below
WHO concept : 4.3 billion people have no access to essential health care services
247eConsult Tools : Provision of free apps in all the three languages spoken in Sri Lanka
WHO concept : Looming global shortage of health workers
247eConsult Tools : Use of ICT and training and use of locally available resources for healthcare delivery
WHO concept : 1 : 8700 hr ratio of physician care to medical self care
247eConsult Tools : Availability of services 24/7 is a given in ICT
WHO concept : Medical selfcare is sought for convenience, confidentiality, cost, discrimination
247eConsult Tools : All our tools achieve these requirements
WHO concept : Medical selfcare promote persons' active participation in their own healthcare and push then towards greater self-determination, self-efficacy, autonomy and engagement in health. 247eConsult Tools : All our tools are designed to achieve these ends
WHO concept : Sustained adoption of quality, evidence-based self-care interventions reduce deaths and diseases, improve the health and well being
247eConsult Tools : All our tools are designed to achieve these ends
Hatch S, Kickbusch I, editors; World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Self-help and health in Europe: new approaches in health care. Albany (NY): World Health Organization Publications Center USA; 1983.
WHO 2019. WHO consolidated guideline on self-care interventions for health: sexual and reproductive health and rights. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
WHO 2021 - https://www.who.int/news-room/