Deputy Minister for Health, Dr Godwin Mollel has said that his docket is looking into possibilities of creating a single health information system that will connect all hospitals from the national to dispensary level.
The system, which is expected to facilitate access to accurate health information, will also connect various institutions that provide health services, including financial institutions and the national health insurance fund.
Speaking recently after launching the special logo and website of the Tanzania Health Informatics Association (TAHIA), Dr Mollel said the system will help to monitor issues related to health and even get the right information for decision making.
“For example, a person can go to a regional hospital and take a CT-Scan, a few days he goes to another regional or national hospital and repeats the CT-Scan again without medical reasons, it is wastage of resource, CT-Scan costs 300,000/- and you take another one for no reason. This is a misuse of government resources and it increases the cost to the national health insurance fund,” said Dr Mollel.
He said that currently it is difficult to have one say but through this system people can speak the same language.
“You might find the Ministry of Livestock is dealing with anthrax and the Ministry of Health does not have information, if we have information, we will know how to deal with it together,” said Dr Mollel.
Dr Mollel said the placement of financial institutions will help to know the use of money but also this system will help to know how many people have been treated and their expenses per month or year.
He said that in order to achieve all this, cooperation between the Prime minister’s Office, the Ministry of Information, Communication and Information Technology is important, where he explained that they will look at how to meet to ensure that what is being done is meaningful.
The President of TAHIA who is also the Principal ICT Officer at the Ministry of Health, Sosthenes Bagume said the association is working towards enhancing the capacity and role of health informatics in strengthening Tanzania’s health systems.
“Part of TAHIA’s main objectives is to review the progress on the implementation of the Tanzania digital health strategy 2019-2024 and the digital health investment roadmap and Primary Health Care digital transformation,’’ he said, explaining the vision of the association.
Launching of the Tanzania Health Informatics Association (TAHIA) aims at promoting the roles of health informatics in contributing to the implementation of National Digital Health Strategies.
The event was preceded by a two-day health informatics symposium and exhibition which provided a platform for health informatics knowledge sharing among partners and the government in order to improve excellence and synergies in health informatics.
The experts in this field of health informatics are working to sensitise partners and stakeholders on the importance of digital health governance, architecture and programme management.
They are also working to review and update the inventory of current and planned digital health interventions using the Tanzania Digital Health.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Susan Mmary
Quelle/Source: Daily News, 07.08.2023
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