Digitise

Someone recently told me that they went to their dentist’s office for follow-up care and was in the chair being prepped when they were asked about some care options. It all seemed routine until the person was being asked about things to be done that they had not heard of before. They were there for something completely different from what was being presented. Something that, when asked, was not on the card that the dentist was reading from. After some back and forth, it was discovered that it was the wrong patient card.

Health care costs have the capacity to render persons bankrupt and is an expense that Government and all of us will have an interest in keeping as low as possible.

The United States (US) is a great example of how high health care costs can have a negative effect on individuals and health seeking behaviour.

I recently explained and referred to data as the 'new oil', and if we understand the true value of data and what it can do for health care then we would now know that there are boundless opportunities that we can carve out to improve service delivery, patient care and save lives.

Apart from tracking trends, deciphering where and when outbreaks may happen, medication being used by whom and in which geographic location, data provides a whole gamut of information we can use at a very personal level.

The recent devastating impact of natural disasters in the Caribbean and North America has underscored the dangers we face here in the region.

The region is no stranger to this as many of us has had to rebuild several times after a natural disaster.

In preparing for these disasters we usually think of the loss of our fixed assets such as cars, homes and other property, but we seldom give consideration to the possibility of the loss of important data.