Tajikistan's government, aided by the EU, is creating a unified health information system.
Plans for the e-network began in 2010, Safar Sayfiddinov, director of the Republican Centre for Health Statistics and Information at the Health and Social Protection Ministry, told Central Asia Online, and €5.5m (36.7m TJS) has been budgeted for the project for 2013-2014.
"Officials already have bought 218 computers and installed them in 162 district and city healthcare centres," Sayfiddinov said. "This will allow them to collect and analyse information about our citizens' health punctually and ... to make decisions."
The project includes teaching medics computer literacy, providing computers and setting up a local health information system.
Officials are still testing the system, and it will officially accept information starting January 1, 2015, Sayfiddinov said. Doctors will enter diagnoses into the e-system by punching in disease codes.
Rural areas still waiting
Some hospitals began using the system a while ago, so the ministry's initiative is nothing new for them, Khokima Asliyayeva, head physician of Dushanbe's Healthcare Centre No. 6, said.
"We installed an electronic database solely for our centre three years ago," Asliyayeva continued. "It's turned out to be very efficient and has made the lives of both doctors and patients significantly easier.
By now, everyone has learned to sign in before his [or her] appointment, and there are virtually no lines. You can call or sign up online."
However, the unified health information system has yet to be available in more-rural areas.
"We need additional donations to expand the network into rural areas," Sayfiddinov said.
A secondary challenge for the rural areas is that many doctors in those regions are not so familiar with computer technology.
"Getting used to the new system is not easy," Nushin Akhmetova, a doctor practicing in Dushanbe, said. "We got used to writing everything down.
Quitting that, switching everything to electronic, and learning about computers along with other things are fairly difficult."
Benefits for doctors and patients
But an online system can be a big help, another Dushanbe doctor, Lola Mukhitddinova, said.
"When doctors arrive at work, we already know how many patients we'll have," said Mukhitddinova, who has been using the system. "People make appointments with their doctors and will continue to do so online. Lines will be a thing of the past."
"Reading through the electronic medical record will make diagnosing illnesses much quicker and easier," she said. "Everything will be archived, and we'll be able to send patient info electronically to another doctor."
The new system envisages availability of patients' data regardless of where the patients are.
"Converting to a unified healthcare system is another step toward e-government and a huge time-saver," Asomiddin Atoyev, director of the Association of Internet Providers of Tajikistan, said. "Doctors will be able to help people faster. You can keep track of what was done, when and why. Everything will be concentrated in one place. Medics will do a better job all around, since their work will become visible and accessible to all their colleagues."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Nadin Bahrom
Quelle/Source: Central Asia Online, 18.06.2014
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