Symposium on e-health on Sept. 15,16

by Thulasi MUTTULINGAM

A two-day international symposium on e-Health, titled e-Health Sri Lanka 2010 will be hosted by the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and the Post Graduate institute of Medicine (PGIM) at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla on September 15 and 16.

The aim is to pave the way for all stakeholders in the health sector to meet and collaborate on the prospect of having a co-ordinated, computerised health system throughout the country.

"If you consider the recent problem of the drug shortage in hospitals, one of the main factors was the lack of communication between the various institutes" said Dr. Nishan Siriwardena of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL).

"That's just one of the many problems that a computerised health system across the country would take care of."

Another would be that doctors in all hospitals, government and private, would with the patients' permission access his or her medical history through a common database.

"If a patient had already done a certain laboratory test in Kandy but had not received it while consulting me in Colombo, he would have to do the test all over again. These are practical problems that we face as doctors everyday" said Dr. Vajira H.W Dissanayake, President of HISSL.

"If the system were to be computerised as we envision, with a sharing of information across different hospitals, the problem wouldn't arise."

It would also allow doctors to access the complete medical history of a patient including blood groups, allergies, previous diseases and any other medical complications, thereby making their jobs of treating the patient much more efficient.

The Ministry of Health would also keep tabs on drugs that were in short supply and which hospitals were in need of medical equipment and staff. "Given the comparatively low allocation in the budget for Health every year, Sri Lanka does remarkably well in the Health sector, as compared to other South Asian countries", said Dr. Dissanayake.

"We have a highly committed medical labour force as well as some time tested manual systems. The idea is not to interfere with what is already working so well, but improve and support it as much as possible."

Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena will be the Chief Guest while Minister of Technology and Research, Professor Tissa Vitharana will be the Guest of Honour at the two-day symposium which will feature specialist guest speakers from abroad and Sri Lanka.