Hospitals or medical practitioners can access and update information on treatment and medication of patients by connecting the micro-vault, which is half the size of a pen, to their computers. Dr. Saeed Abdullah Bin Ishaq, Director of Quality and Development Department at the Ministry of Health, said : "we are mulling over the possibility of distributing micro-vaults or flash disks to all residents by the end of this year so that they can personally carry it during visits to hospital. This will reduce the chances of prescribing contraindicative medicines or even repeating medications or tests."
The ministry is also coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and Industry and Etisalat to study ways of incorporating medical history into an electronic ID card which will be issued at the end of the year.
"All GCC countries are curently promoting the introduction of electronic smart cards which can be used as the first point of reference for all individuals. From a health angle, we are considering the possibility of including medical information in the electronic format in the ID card."
These initiatives are part of the efforts to introduce the concept of e-government by transforming from the traditional or paper-based services to e-based services to be offered to the entire community.
"With the introduction of e-services in various central departments within the ministry, we are aiming to bring all health services under an electronic network," Dr. Saeed said. He said the Ministry of Health had come a long way in introducing state-of-the-art technologies to link together various departments and medical districts through a unified electronic network.
Autor: Anjana Sankar
Quelle: Khaleej Times, 20.07.2005
