This news was greeted with amazement by the conference delegates when the IT coordinator, Tofiga Aisake addressed the conference on eHealth in the Cook Islands.
The Health Ministry uses Toniq for the electronic dispensing of pharmaceuticals, which also monitors medication and monitors stock levels which can be used for providing financial reports for management. There is coverage to Rarotonga and all the outer islands which were sponsored by WHO and JICA.
Another computer programme is called Meditech where patient records can now be captured on one file (instead multiple files which may be misplaced) including clinical notes. A comprehensive patient database is essential and patient records can have electronic attachments of say an X-ray on file or the use of a drawing tool with templates to show the spot which part of the body the dislocation occurred on the patient.
Records are also kept of recall screening, dengue, fish poisoning, mammograms and STI to establish the patient demographics for those ailments. Computerised accounts record those who don’t pay their fees, keep trace of lab supplies, consumables and the records are useful for creating an audit trail.
The results of lab referrals are received direct from the diagnostic clinic in NZ and redirected to outer islands, if applicable, throughout the Southern Group. The Northern Group situation is still a work in progress. The Ministry also uses the GIS as a tool to assist them, for instance, in mapping populations at risk such as when they mapped out the areas where that had cases of dengue.
The challenges ahead are having access to a reliable power supply, hence their retention of manual records as a back up, legal issues from outdated legislation. There is also the fear of technology in some health professionals and providing good training is seen as essential in overcoming such barriers.
Securing transmission between health networks is also important as are the ability to reach out to the outer islands electronically.
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Quelle/Source: The Cook Islands Herald, 06.09.2008
