{"id":34672,"date":"2026-05-17T11:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34672"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:05:20","slug":"sa-urged-to-embrace-ai-to-improve-rural-healthcare-access","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-urged-to-embrace-ai-to-improve-rural-healthcare-access\/","title":{"rendered":"SA urged to embrace AI to improve rural healthcare access"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South African (SA) Medical Association Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mzulungile Nodikida says SA should use technology, including artificial intelligence, to help address healthcare challenges, especially in rural communities.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He says patient records should be digitised to prevent them from being lost.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He says lost medical records often make it difficult for the government to defend itself in court against malpractice claims.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He added that patient records should be accessible at all healthcare facilities throughout the country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;With artificial intelligence now, you could have a specialist sitting anywhere in the country, connecting with a nurse or a doctor in the deep rural areas. All we need to do is invest in technology and internet access for those clinics\u00a0so we can literally remotely connect the clinic to a teaching hospital. We&#8217;ve got lots of unemployed doctors. We can put them in one centre where they literally provide guidance for the deep rural clinics of our country. South Africans need a universal electronic health record so if I&#8217;m seen here at Busa Med and I somehow happen to be in Cape Town on Monday, I can go into a health facility. My history can be downloaded.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22980,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34672","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"He says patient records should be digitised to prevent them from being lost.","published_date":"","news_description":"He says patient records should be digitised to prevent them from being lost.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34673,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34672\/revisions\/34673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}