Recommendations for Enhancing Offline Functionality to ensure Information Availability in South African Public Electronic Health Information Systems

Authors

Ronewa Gilbert Nthatheni, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa

Tumiso Thulare, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa

Keneilwe Jeannette Maremi, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa

Siyabonga Mthethwa, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa

Published in

IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2576-8581

ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.GAOM4509

Publisher

IST-Africa Institute and IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd

Published in Ireland

Abstract

The offline functionality in health information systems poses a risk to the availability of health information due to various challenges. Patient files can easily be lost, duplicated, or unavailable for healthcare professionals due to corrupt virtual machines, faulty hard drives, viruses, and theft of digital gadgets. This can result in the need to recreate files, leading to potential data loss affecting information availability. This paper provides recommendations for addressing challenges impacting information availability in the offline functionality of South African electronic health information systems through a scoping review. This was done using the following academic databases: ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore, and search engines such as Google. The scoping review resulted in 26 papers and suggested measures such as system design and resilience, data synchronisation and integrity, uninterrupted power supply, secure local data storage and reliable ICT infrastructure for public healthcare facilities.

Keywords

Electronic health information systems; information availability; offline functionality

Cite this paper

R.G. Nthatheni, T. Thulare, K.J. Maremi and S. Mthethwa (2026) "Recommendations for Enhancing Offline Functionality to ensure Information Availability in South African Public Electronic Health Information Systems", IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings, Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham (Eds), IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2026, ISSN: 2576-8581, ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2, https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.GAOM4509

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