Spelling out the latest achievements of the ministry in the field of e-health, Abdullah Al-Wehaibi, adviser to the minister of health and general supervisor of information and communications technology at the ministry, said here Wednesday that the ministry has been processing 85 electronic projects to assist patients and their relatives to get the best of health services throughout the Kingdom.
“Most of these projects are patient-centered in line with the vision of Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, who had initiated the 'Patients First' program for the benefit of the sick,” Al-Wehaibi noted.
He explained that the e-identification program to make out the newborns has already been introduced in 16 maternity hospitals in its first phase. This service will be extended to other maternity hospitals throughout the Kingdom at various stages, he said, adding that such a facility would also help health officials refer the infant patients to other hospitals without hassles.
He explained that that there is an existing National Information Center which is linked to 250 hospitals to register children born in different hospitals. “This service is useful for the health officials when there is need to transfer or refer the patients to other hospitals.
Al-Wehaibi said the MoH has been harnessing information technology for the benefit of the patients under its national health strategy program.
He also pointed out that the ministry has devised a scheme to detect medical errors electronically. “Medical errors committed by the health officials in handling patients could be electronically detected and the officials concerned could be made answerable,” he said. In such situations, the relatives of the patients could also contact the medical authorities for necessary action for the medical mistakes and would be allowed to seek suitable damages.
“The Ministry of Health has a vision to improve the standards, availability and quality of care in the Kingdom.The MoH has also developed a business strategy and five-year plan to realize this vision and has positioned e-health as a primary transformation agent and enabler."
He said the e-health strategy supports the primary MoH business goals such as to care for patients, connect providers at all levels of care, to measure the performance of health care delivery and to transform health care delivery to a consistent, world-class standard. “ These goals are the core of the multidimensional e-health vision. A safe, quality health system, based on patient-centric care guided by standards and enabled by e-health conveys the importance and need for e-health in the MoH.”
E-health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is the combined use of electronic communication and information technology in the health sector. Countries around the world are adopting e-health to improve health care delivery and planning. The drivers for e-health investments and adoption are based on providing clinical value and supporting business needs.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): MD Rasooldeen
Quelle/Source: Arab News, 06.02.2014
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