Technology

eHealth policy for Sri Lanka soon

by Surekha GALAGODA

"The mobile payment gateway supporting online payments through mobile phones will be launched soon" said Chief Operating Officer ICTA Reshan Dewapura.

Addressing the eHealth Sri Lanka 2010 conference themed toward IT enabled HealthCare he said, that plans are under way to introduce an eHealth policy in the country.

He said that once the policy is fully implemented it will link the government hospitals, private hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories as well as insurance companies into one system and create a paperless society.

In addition all this information will be connected to the population register which will have details of all citizens in the country.

The register will be launched at the end of this year, said Dewapura. Information Director, Ministry of Health Dr. S.R.U. Wimalaratne said that there are some eHealth projects that are functioning well but in isolation while some have failed.

He said that there are many issues for these systems to fail among them are ownership, data security, lack of knowledge to further develop the system, or developed without understanding the health system, inability to share information as well as lack of policy and standards.

Therefore it is necessary to develop eHealth Policy to integrate all sectors relating to the healthcare industry . The Government policy approved by the Cabinet of Ministers requires that all institutions be linked to one system using the power of ICT. Therefore it is mandatory for the health sector too to link all its systems using the power of ICT. Dr Wimalaratne said that already work is underway to formulate the policy. Under this a national eHealth Committee, a sub committee as well as a draft formulation group have been appointed while the terms of reference for the roadmap has been decided while the planning stage has already started.

The eHealth committee is chaired by the Secretary Ministry of Health. President Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISL) Dr Vajira Dissanayake said that HISL was started in 1998 to promote the use of IT in the health sector and though there were issues in the beginning officials have started to understand the importance of using ICT in the health sector creating a paperless society.

Director Post Graduate Institute of Medicine Prof Rizvi Sheriff said that though medical science is forging ahead there is no interaction between the medical profession and the ICT profession, creating a vacuum in the sharing of information.

Society is changing and we have to keep pace with the times if we are to leapfrog in development.

Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana said that generating knowledge is key to development and this should be achieved through research and high value addition using technology.

He said that the Government provides a state run health service for all its citizens and now it is time to improve quality and ensure that all citizens have access to healthcare.

Total information solutions from ISC

A total of nineteen corporate members have joined the Information Services Centre (ISC) of the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) this year to obtain information, said Head of the Information Services Centre Suranee Samarasekera.

Head, ISC Suranee Samarasekera

She said that compared to previous years it is much higher and ISC hopes that more companies would join as members before the end of the year.

ISC wants to identify needs and proactively provide information to the people.

The Centre was successful in maintaining its ISO 9001:2000 certification as the only library in the country to have such certification from 2008 through to 2009.Presently the quality system has been integrated with that of the ITI to achieve uniformity. It is now certified under the ISO 9001:2008 ITI Quality Management System and continues to operate as a Centre of Excellence for Technology Information in Sri Lanka.

Samarasekera said that ISC provides information to about 650 corporate members and plans to improve its clientele to support the growth of the economy.

She said the ISC is capable of providing total information solutions to industrialists and businessmen as well as to researchers and scientists.

She said that the ISC library is one of the three libraries which has commissioned an automated online library system for the convenience of users and houses catalogues, books, periodicals, standards classified by subject, online databases, current contents, for example Scopus, Science Direct, Delnet and Blackwell.

There are over 32,000 books, 125,000 reprints, a very good collection of science and technology news clippings, as well as the access to a range of standards.

In addition there are special collections which include the reference collection, Sri Lanka collection, IT publications as well as archival periodical collection.

Samarasekera said that industrialists and businessmen can use the available information to enhance their capacity and be more competitive in global markets. She said that ISC has access to a range of online websites which includes Science direct.

Any information relating to subjects such as chemistry, agriculture, biology, pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceuticals can be obtained via the net.

Samarasekera said that in addition to all other services provided by ISC they also conduct seminars. A seminar regarding quality is scheduled to be held next month.

The staff of the centre has connections with all research organizations in Sri Lanka and overseas. Obtaining the relevant information is very quick.

If we are unable to get information needed, we can direct the person to the correct source.

She said that the ISC of the ITI was established in 1955 and is one of the largest technical libraries with the best overall collection of science and technology related literature.

ISC is a leading science and technology information provider and is one of the few special libraries in the country with its resources accessible to all interested.

The Centre is also geared to providing services and information in English, Sinhala and Tamil thus catering to Large, medium and small scale enterprises in the country.

Abans launches powershot Canon digital camera

Abans recently launched the Canon PowerShot A490 digital camera. It's a practical choice for amateur photographers who like to work with a camera that has high-end features, and yet is affordable. It features 10MP resolution (1/2.3-in.CCD), 3.3x optical zoom (37-122mm equiv.), a 6.4 -cm (2.5-in.) LCD display screen, and uses two AA batteries. You can either use two alkaline batteries (included) or optionally two rechargeable NIHM batteries.

For general purpose photography, Smart AUTO shooting mode analyzes your scene and automatically selects the appropriate setting. For more challenging shooting situations, you can match the scene yourself to the appropriate Scene Mode. For example, Night Snapshot Scene Mode sets the camera so you can take a night picture where the main subject (lit by flash) and the background (long exposure) are both recorded. Low Light Scene Mode extends the high ISO up to 3200 when photographing without a flash in dimly-lit situations.

Long Shutter Scene Mode extends the shutter speed range from 1 sec. to 15 sec, for creative night photography.

For those who desire a bit more control, they can switch to program AE (P) Mode and dial in an exposure compensation to compensate for scenes that are too bright or too dark.

Custom White Balance allows you to obtain the correct colours under artificial lighting conditions.

For artistic photo effects, My Colors can record your pictures in vivid, neutral, sepia, black & white or use custom colour to adjust the contrast, sharpness and saturation.

You can shoot VGA movie 640 x 480 pixels at 30fps with monaural sound for up to one hour or 4GB per clip.

There are two software applications that are included on the CD ROM which you will have to install on your computer: ZoomBrowser allows you to upload your pictures and videos from camera to computer, then view and edit them.

CameraWindow allows you to easily upload your videos to YouTube directly from the camera or from your computer.

Microsoft hosts Partner Conference

Microsoft Sri Lanka recently hosted its annual Partner Conference with the participation of a broad gathering of partners from Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The conference focused on enlightening partner communities on new products and strategies highlighting the importance of its commitment to the enhancement of local IT infrastructure. The conference was followed by the Partner Awards Ceremony to honour outstanding performances by partners.

Sri Lankan award winners at the Partner Awards Ceremony

DMS Electronics Limited won the Best Managed Partner award. Runners up were Millennium Information Technologies Limited, Best 'Attach at Source' COEM Partner was won by Softlogic Trading (Pvt) Ltd, Best 'Attach at Source' COEM Distributor presented to Trident Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Best Partner - Maldives awarded to Focus Computer (Pvt) Ltd, Best Distributor won by Tech One Global (Pvt) Ltd, Best Partner Microsoft Dynamics, awarded to H-ONE Private Ltd, Best Competitive Win Back, awarded to Zillione Technologies and 'Best Certified Partner in Learning' presented to NetAssist International (Pvt) Ltd.

Enterprise Technology Strategist, Customer Advocacy and Technology Manager, Microsoft Corporation Gary Sweeting made a presentation where he stressed the need for continued unity among the IT community of Sri Lanka to maximize the impact technology could have on organizational efficiency.

"We're in the early days of an industry-wide transformation as we reorient towards the cloud.

It's a natural evolution in computing - from mainframe, mid-range, client-server, internet to more advanced forms of communication and technology and it presents a great opportunity for Microsoft with our partners to expand into new markets and grow revenue together.

If we look at some common themes across this evolution I think two are worth noting in the context of this session. One is that each stage reduced the barriers to accessing/leveraging the technology (researchers, analysts, information workers to every worker) and the second is that it led to a growth in IT industry due to the growth in value IT brings to the business. We are looking to try and share with you why we're super excited about the opportunity this presents - and why we believe that we're ideally placed to capitalize on this opportunity - with you". Sweeting explained how cloud computing benefits partners through expanding reach, growing revenue and increasing velocity throughout the organizations processes.

Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, emphasized the need for continued partnerships among the ICT community. "The IT landscape in Sri Lanka is now moving faster toward achieving its full potential. With the advent of cloud computing technology, the limitlessness of the future is now more available to every single individual. As partners we need to educate ourselves on how best to carry this technology forward to benefit the entire local IT community."

The Microsoft's partner ecosystem is an integral component of its business in Sri Lanka - the Microsoft Business Model focuses on its partners driving the achievement of business goals. Microsoft partners receive a wide range of direct support and training services from Microsoft and in turn, are authorised to deliver Microsoft technologies to end users.

RTBP to nip disease in the bud

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Communication technology has been successfully used in dissemination of health information, reporting incidents of communicable diseases reported at government hospitals to relevant health authorities.

Real Time Bio-Surveillance Program (RTBP), a pilot project tested in 12 hospitals in the Kurunegala district and four hospitals in Thirupathur in Tamil Nadu, India has been successful and now provides real time data and analysis, Provincial Health Director North-Western province Dr. Sudath Perera said.

The results of the project implemented in the Kurunegala district is impressive with an average of 7,200 records received per week. 25 prioritised infectious diseases such as dengue, malaria and dysentery as well as other non communicable diseases like diabetes or arthritis were detected.

RTBP is designed to collect timely and relevant health surveillance data and to process the data to reliably and quickly detect possible outbreaks of diseases.

RTBP is based on the existing mandatory diseases reporting system in government hospitals which is over 100 years old.

Under this manual reporting system it takes a minimum of three weeks for information related to a communicable disease to reach authorities for preventive action. Further there is no method for quick analysis of data nor to observe the pattern of the spreading of the disease.

RTBP uses the same data related to communicable diseases and other diagnosis of the patients treated at government hospitals and feeds it to a data base using mobile phones.

RTBP consists of intelligent software, a program which could complement surveillance, alerting and a mechanism for analysing, assessing and responding mechanism.

Health workers digitalise health records with the mHealthSurvey software application that works on popular and affordable java enabled mobile phones.

The data is received to epidemiologists at the Regional Epidemiology Units who analyse the data using T-Cube web interface to identify potential outbreaks.

Then public health officials issues alerts to doctors, nurses and other health officers in the form of SMS, email and web text messages. Sarvodaya Suwadana Centres assist digitalisation of data in the pilot project.

The Senior Research Manager of LIRNEasia Nuwan Waidyanathan said that in the face of an epidemic, time is of essence. We must act fast to nip the disease in the bud, before it is too late and this is what we wanted to achieve with RTBP.

Within an year of the pilot project, over 300,000 records related to diseases have been received from 12 hospitals in the Kurunegala district.

The system has automatically generated analysis and reports such as showing time series trends, geographical distribution of diseases and gender distribution of diseases.

With the success of the pilot project the Ministry of Health and Nutrition is considering the scale up the project to national level.

RTBP is a partnership of the International Development Research Centre, Canada; the Ministry of Health and Nutrition; the Health and Family Welfare Department, Tamil Nadu, India, LIRNEasia, Sarvodaya, IIT-Madras; Carnegie Mellon University Auton Lab, USA; University of Alberta - Canada; National Centre for Biological Science, India and Respere Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.

IFS completes fastest ERP implementation

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

IFS Sri Lanka performed a miracle by successfully implementing ERP solutions in two companies within one and a half months time, said the Vice President of IFS for South Asia Jayantha De Silva.

Jayantha De Silva addresses the media. Pic: Kavindra Perera

He was addressing the media together with his client Flinth Industrial Park (FIP), a Swedish investment, to announce the record breaking successful and fast implementation of ERP.

Today is a great day for IFS, FIP as well as the whole IT community in Sri Lanka. One and a half months ago we met FIP officials to demonstrate our product, ERP.

The client wanted implementation completed within three months. Making the matter worse they said that there are eight companies in the FIP and the ERP should be implemented in all eight companies within the three months.

This was one of the greatest challenges we faced in ERP implementation and we honestly discussed and decided that the task was too big and impossible. However, FIP stressed that it is possible and they too wanted to complete the project because some of the companies in FIP had started production.

The shortest time period taken in ERP implementation by IFS Sweden was 125 days and it was only for one company.

After evaluating our resources we finally accepted the challenge.

Today, after one and a half months we have completed implementation in two companies and we are well ahead of our targets. We have confidence that the implementation in all eight companies will be completed as scheduled, De Silva said.

De Silva said that four key factors contributed the success of the project. Firstly the solution and we know that Flinth had evaluated our solution and selected us. Secondly, the people; and we, IFS, has quality, hard working people with global experience.

Also we deployed our most senior people on this project. Thirdly the post implementation support and we decided to place two dedicated persons at FIP to provide post implementation support. Fourthly, and most importantly, the customer readiness.

If the customer is not ready the ERP fails and this is the cause for most of the ERP failures.

This is a miracle and a great achievement of IFS, de Silva said.

Founder of the FIP Rune Flinth said that FIP needed the most sophisticated ERP to suit the operations of the companies in the park and selected the IFS solution.

I have been doing business in Sri Lanka for the last 20 years. I had two ventures Flinth Tech and Toroid International and I sold them three to four years ago. Today there are over 2500 working in these two factories," he said. "I have realised that Sri lankan engineers are very talented and they can do any job if you train and treat them properly. I got great support from the BOI and Sri Lankan banks and it helped in the success of my business.

FIP was set up because I wanted to do something for Sri Lanka.

FIP is a new concept based on over 40 years of my business experiences and it can attract high tech industries and show the world what Sri Lanka can do.

FIP is a unique industrial park and we have a central company with all infrastructure. It provides all services such as finance, quality assurance, human resources, IT and procurement.

These services are used by the manufacturing companies in the park which only focus on manufacturing and marketing.

The most advanced manufacturing company in the park is AeroSense which develops sensors for the aerospace industry.

Our latest order is for Boeing 787 aircraft and this shows the degree of sophistication we need and the level of the manufacturing companies in the FIP, Flinth said.