Development of E-Health Portal with Smart Authentication for Rural Deployment

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) labelled the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak a globapandemic in March 2020. The pandemic has brought unprecedented hurdles, exposing the frailties and shortcomings of many national health-care delivery systems especially in rural communities. Rural communities often face challenges in accessing quality healthcare due to limited resources and infrastructure. This paper proposes the development of an eHealth portal with smart authentication to promote healthcare services in rural areas by leveraging the power of digital technologies and smart authentication systems, to bridge the gap and enhance healthcare delivery in rural settings. The eHealth platform will serve as an efficient means of collecting and managing patient information, enabling healthcare professionals to have real-time access to accurate data.The platform which is a web based application is designed using Glide Application to create user interface that handles registration and user log-in as well as other relevant information. The backend which handles user authentication, data base and other application functionality is created using google sheet and google drive. Smart authentication is implemented using Two Factor Authentication (2FA) system and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-2). The platform was tested for functionality and the result obtained is based on system response and user feedback. The result shows that the platform responds to users' query promptly with latency of 0.125 seconds with positive user experience.