advanced

It is no secret that I have been a long-time advocate of healthcare digitisation, recognising how much we could improve the health of our population if we adopted technology.

This was what led me to invest in a company in India called Suvarna Technosoft, which provides health information management systems software to nearly 200 hospitals and from which we were able to begin digitising the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

It's an established fact — not always given sufficient thought — that a successful nation is not built overnight. It happens brick by brick. And, in the case of the world's leading powers, the process took hundreds of years.

Crucial to nation building is the coming together of people, oneness — a common identity spurred by goals, achievements, and, of course, the survival instinct.

Inevitably from this oneness comes a collective pride, popularly referred to as national pride.

The technology landscape in Jamaica is ripe and ready for harvesting. I have had the pleasure of working with, and interacting with, several youngsters who are geniuses in their own right where technology development is concerned.

After being exposed to these youth, I see no reason why Jamaica cannot be among the best of countries like India, China, Japan and the United States, which continuously push new and emerging technology, and have invested heavily in the development of new and efficient ways of conducting business, and improving efficiency in general.

Several medical practitioners have indicated that they want to introduce electronic medical records (EMR) but they are not looking at the vast opportunities the technology can bring to modernising health care management, or even the much better linkages that EMR could have in digitising other aspects of their operations. 

Generally, we believe in looking at the bigger picture and so when a client approaches us with a need, we demonstrate to them the possibilities beyond that one objective.

Electronic prescribing is much more than it appears. While the basic definition speaks to the technology framework that allows doctors and other prescribers to electronically write and transmit prescriptions to patients and pharmacies, the system as a whole can achieve much more. One general benefit of e-prescription is that it assists with eliminating prescription errors in several ways, but importantly, it can be used as part of a system of medication management.

Douglas Halsall, the CEO of Advanced Integrated Systems Limited, disclosed that Supreme Ventures Limited has chosen his company as the technology partner for its mobile betting app, using its Quisk platform.

The lottery and gaming company confirmed that it had made progress on the project, but said it would await the results of tests that are now under way before going public with the details.

The matter of male fertility is generally taboo in the Jamaican context because we men take our sexual prowess quite seriously.

Yet we have considerably more 'jackets' than many other nations. But this is by no means just a Jamaican issue. According to scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, sperm counts among men in the West have more than halved in the past 40 years and are currently falling by an average of 1.4 per cent a year.

Integrating telemedicine into the healthcare system is not as hard as you would imagine, especially given that the systems and other tools are readily available to do so.

But if we should begin using telemedicine as a major component of the healthcare system, inside and outside the public sector, how many Jamaicans would be able to easily access and benefit? This is a very important issue that we are technically able to resolve if the right environment is created.

I have always been fascinated by technology, so although I started my career as an accountant, I was pulled to the technology sphere where I managed to introduce industry-changing technology initiatives in banking, finance and health.

I have seen the positives that technology can have on individuals and entire sectors. This is a part of the reason I make it a point to attend the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference each year to see the new and emerging technologies in health.

Advanced Integrated Systems adding business line, partnerships

But stock market listing still three years away

CEO and company founder Douglas Halsall is indicating that it will be another three years before Advanced Integrated Systems Limited, AIS, proceeds with plans to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, but is laying the groundwork for the expansion of the company in the interim.