Health + Tech | Information exchange systems key to creating a national EMR database

The Government has committed to making some major hospitals digital with the intention of bringing others on board over time. The private health sector has also been moving forward with digitisation with the University Hospital of the West Indies putting in place its Health Information Management System and many private doctors’ offices embracing smaller systems.

As we continue to navigate the technology landscape, one thing becomes clear and it’s that eventually, all of these systems will have to ‘talk’ to each other or become interoperable. In addition, patient information, ideally, will need to be shared between them if we are to have a fully integrated health system that comprehensively serves the needs of our population.

This is where Health Information Exchange (HIE) systems come in. They have the potential to revolutionise patient care across the globe by enabling the efficient and quick sharing of information across health facilities. They enable coordination of information from various sources between and within healthcare facilities to ensure continuity of care, increase efficiency and optimise resources.

Jamaicans seek medical care from various sources in the public and private sector. It is not uncommon for one person to have their medical records distributed among various doctors without the benefit of merging them. A part of the health vision for Jamaica is for us to have a national electronic medical record (EMR) database that can be accessed by any healthcare facility – public or private. This would need an HIE system integrated in order to maintain security of patient data, ensure that medical practitioners have all the information they need to adequately diagnose and treat patients, provide the right medication and implement preventive treatment based on patient history, thereby improving health outcomes. Without this, critical patient information would be fragmented across various locations resulting in incomplete records. This could result in gaps in care and inadequate information to make important decisions, possibly leading to errors. With HIE systems, authorised medical practitioners and hospital administrators would be able to access comprehensive patient data, including medical histories, test results, and medication records, in real time.

Take, for example, a patient with a history of high blood pressure, who resides in rural Jamaica and is accustomed to attending the community health centre, and visits a private doctor for emergency consultation. If the doctor does not have access to the patient’s medical records, they may inadvertently prescribe medication that interacts poorly with the patient’s current regimen. The HIE system can address this by allowing the doctor immediate access to the patient’s history, ensuring safer and more effective treatment. This seamless exchange of information is important in managing chronic non-communicable diseases, which continue to be one of our biggest health challenges.

Cost saving and reducing the likelihood of patients doing duplicates of the same diagnostic examinations is another benefit of information sharing through HIE systems. The fact that they enable patient records to be accessible across facilities, means that these types of inefficiencies would be eliminated. It would also save time and resources as well as reduce discomfort to the patient.

Although we may be slow to implement, we have long recognised the importance of digitising healthcare in a holistic way. Incorporating HIE systems must be a part of our long-term strategies to enable a national EMR database that would enable us to move towards universal health coverage in a more organised and efficient way. We would also benefit from having the kind of data that would allow effective disease tracking and monitoring so that we can make predictions from emerging patterns and have more targeted interventions.

HIE systems could pave the way for a more interconnected and efficient healthcare ecosystem. We have what it takes to can create a more responsive, efficient, and patient-centred healthcare system that serves as a model for the Caribbean.

Doug Halsall is the chairman and CEO of Advanced Integrated Systems. Email feedback to doug.halsall@gmail.com and editorial@gleanerjm.com.