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Bandar Seri
Begawan – The emergence of Health Information Technology or
e-Health has prompted the Ministry of Health to explore the possibilities
of its implementation in a bid to further improve Brunei Darussalam's
health care services.
Topics such as e-Health's priorities and strategies, as well as
its impact on the nation, were discussed during a presentation made by Dr Hj Sablee Hj
Aspar, the Director of Health Care Technology
Services under the Ministry of Health, at yesterday's health conference at
the International Convention Centre (ICC).
With the implementation of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in the Sultanate's health sector, it is hoped that
improvements will be made on the quality of medical care for the people of
Brunei, the geographic coverage of health care, the economics of health
care, the management of hospitals and clinics, as well as the education and
training of health care staff.
Furthermore, with the ICT system, health care personnel can manage
their time more efficiently by focusing on patients instead of
disseminating information through public awareness campaigns.
By adopting ICT, there will be a decrease in the number of
"unnecessary" patient referrals. In other words, less time will
be spent on "wasteful repetition" of conducting check-ups and
diagnostic tests.
Evidence from other countries showed that as a result of adopting
ICT into their health care system, the time that nurses spend on patients
has increased by 50 per cent, while the time it takes to restock supplies
for wards has been cut down from three days to half a day.
In Mexico,
unnecessary referrals were cut down by 70 per cent, while the King Faisal
Specialist Hospital
in Saudi Arabia
reported a "very significant" boost in its finances.
Brunei hopes to improve its existing
health care services by incorporating ICT. There are plans to introduce an
"Integrated National Health Care Management Information System"
in all hospitals and clinics in the Sultanate. The new system will be
compatible with the National Patient Database and National Electronic
Medical Record System.
It is hoped that by adopting the new ICT system, which is inline
with Brunei's e-Government initiative, it will make it easier for the
population to schedule appointments, access their medical records, place
orders for prescriptions and seek counseling.
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