jamaica

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).

Health sectors across developed and developing countries have long struggled with making improvements to infant and maternal health.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) for example, indicates that approximately 830 women die each day from preventable illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth with 99 per cent of these being in developing countries.

Worldwide these two indices are very high. For many lower socio-economic groups the problem is access to health care services. 

The proposed National Identification System (NIDS) has been the source of contentious debate for the last few weeks.

Jamaica is actually late in the game in providing some sort of system of this type to ensure a proper database of its citizens, which will improve the country's ability to put in place effective structures and programmes that will adequately capture the needs of the population.

The United States, for example, can track and manage its welfare services through the social-security number issued to every citizen at birth and kept until death.

October was celebrated as breast cancer awareness month and it brought into focus the very long-standing and urgent matter of the effect of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the Jamaican, Caribbean and world population.

Although most deaths each year are from these diseases, I do not get the feeling that people generally take the issue serious enough.

At a recent event, Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton indicated that it will cost the country more than $70 billion in the next 15 years to treat persons with NCDs.

In this digital tech-centric world, data is king and it is time we, as a country, start mining data to underpin critical decisions. 

At its most basic, this is described as analysing a large amount of data to determine patterns and trends that may exist, with a view to finding solutions, forecasting and predicting future possibilities. 

Data mining can be one of the most profound tools used in any industry that seeks to understand clients and customers’ needs, wants, dislikes and any other pattern that they may establish. 

Doug Halsall, chief executive officer of Advanced Integrated Systems, is pointing to the long-touted establishment of a local medical marijuana industry as an opportunity to invest in and increase much-needed resources in education.

The medical marijuana industry is an opportunity to invest in and increase much needed resources to education. This from Doug Halsall, CEO, Advanced Integrated Systems, (AIS), who indicated that this is why he is in full support of the development of the local medical marijuana industry.

Many born into a generation of rapidly changing technology are able to seamlessly adapt to the almost per-second changes.

But there are many among us who do not quite have it so easily. Technophobia - the fear of technology - is real and is oftentimes seen in people afraid of using new technology.

With the pace of change, technology can, indeed, be very daunting. However, with the increased use of technology across sectors and many companies going digital, it is clear that technology is here to stay.

I remember back in late 2009, the National Blood Transfusion Service ran out of blood bags and had only expired stock that they could not use to collect and store blood.

Back then, it became quite a major issue primarily because, as a country, we have always had a problem with collecting sufficient blood in voluntary donations to satisfy the needs of our sick and those requiring emergency care.

When I heard the announcement from the National Health Fund (NHF) late last year that the agency would be moving towards putting things in place for the development of a National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP) I was a little sceptical.

After all, administration after administration had said this very same thing but nothing ever came to fruition.

I was heartened when I recently saw that the NHF requested submissions for a consultant to examine and begin the process.