A national health educational television channel, called Mindset Health, the first of its kind in Africa, was launched on Friday in Johannesburg by the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

The project, which was funded by the US Agency for International Development, is a public-private partnership between the Department of Health, Sentech and Mindset Network and provides health education TV programmes which are broadcast directly into the waiting rooms and staff rooms of clinics and hospitals around the country.

The channel, which has been broadcasting to 48 clinics in all nine provinces over the last year, is now ready to be implemented nationally.

The channel broadcasts a number of programmes, derived from various media content providers such as Love Life, the South African Broadcasting Corporation and Soul City. Mindset also produces some of its own content.

Programmes are broadcast in four languages: English, Sesotho, isiZulu and isiXhosa.

The channel aims to provide the healthcare worker and the patient with the latest information on prevention, care and management of common illnesses and major diseases, including HIV and Aids.

Real patients are interviewed on the channel, and role-model healthcare workers participate to ensure that the programming is both relevant and interesting.

Speaking at one of the initial pilot sites of the initiative, the Mandela Sisulu Clinic in Soweto, Tshabalala-Msimang said that the department's focus will be on providing healthcare to formerly disadvantaged communities.

“The use of the technology bridges the gap between highly-developed medical services in urban areas and poor medical services in rural areas,” she said.

“This health network will be critical for supporting the training of healthcare workers and the mass public education around key health issues facing the citizens of our country.”

Chief executive of Mindset Ann Lamont said that at the pilot sites, the company has received reports that patients have shown an increased willingness to be tested, and to go for counselling as a result of the programming.

In initial research of the content of the programmes, conducted by the Medical Research Council and the Johns Hopkins University in the US, it was established that 88% of healthcare workers felt that the programmes were relevant and tackled some of the challenges related to sharing information and education about good health and general health issues.

“This is the kind of response we are aiming for on a mass scale around the country to address the key diseases affecting us all,” she said.

She said that Mindset aims to have the channel servicing all 4 000 public healthcare sites in South Africa within five years, serving 97 000 nurses and 36-million South Africans dependent on the public healthcare sector with education and information for patients and healthcare workers.

Section 21 company Sentech, which originally began operations under the auspices of the SABC as a signal distributor, provides technological infrastructure for the Health Channel.

“We are using groundbreaking technology, second-to-none, to deliver the Health Channel effectively,” Gladwin Marumo, chief operating officer of Sentech, explained.

“This channel is delivered through satellite broadcast and datacasting directly to users. Datacasting is a method of sending video and data simultaneously to multiple locations. The information transmitted can also be stored on site. Healthcare workers can view content on demand rather than having to record it or watch it live when it may be inconvenient. This is a good example of how technology can be effectively used to uplift communities and support the work and role of government.”

However, Tshabalala-Msimang said there is still much to do.

“I would like to appeal to the private sector and the business sector to consider supporting this initiative with funding,” she concluded.