The Adoption of ICT Powered Healthcare Technologies towards Managing Global Pandemics

Abstract: Pandemic is an outbreak that happens over a large geographic area affecting a greater portion of the population as new pathogens appear for which people have less immune and no vaccines are available. It can spread from person to person in a very short time, and in fact, the health workers are at greater risk of infection because of the patients who carry the disease. In the 21st century, where everyone is connected through digital technologies, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a critical role in improving health care for individuals and larger communities. ICT has currently been severed in a variety of application domains which signifies its importance as a major technological paradigm, and it has drawn higher attention for its potential to alleviate the burden on healthcare systems caused by a rise in chronic diseases, aging and increased population and pandemic situations. This paper surveys and offers substantial knowledge about how effective ICT Healthcare strategy can be used to manage global pandemics by presenting a four-phased framework, which can be deployed to alleviate the strain on healthcare during a pandemic. In addition, we discuss how ICT powered technologies can be used towards managing a pandemic during the transformation of simple disease outbreak into a global pandemic.