technology

JAMAICA HAS an excellent cadre of skilled professionals in emergency and general medical care. However, over the years, we continue to face significant problems with attaining an acceptable transportation system for emergency and non-emergency care.

Over and over, we hear complaints about the lack of ambulances to serve communities. Many Jamaicans would tell you that it makes no sense to call an ambulance from the public sector. More often than not, none is available and private ambulances come at a relatively high cost.

WITH THE direction in which health and technology are going, it would be prudent for the issue of ownership and access to medical records to be worked out once and for all. With pertinent restrictions of course, access to medical records needs to be less prohibitive to the patient.

The number of preventable deaths each year is staggering.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 7.8 million people die of hypertension, 5.4 million die from smoking tobacco, 3.8 million from malnutrition, 3 million from STDs, 2.5 million from overweight and obesity, 2.8 million from poor diet, 2 million from physical inactivity and 1.9 million from alcohol.

Interoperability is what makes an electronic system, well a system. Connectivity is critical in any healthcare environment.

Health technology increases the rate of connectivity and access generally, but within that there also needs to be further connectivity. Interoperability is a fundamental part of this ecosystem.

There are myriad things that we have yet to explore to uncover the benefits of technology in health.

One of them is how we can achieve an interconnected and efficient multiagency disaster and crisis preparation and response mechanism.

Health is integral to any disaster response, and so the first step would be to achieve an interconnected health system. By this I mean a system by which both private- and public-sector health interests can have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to patient care.

Jamaica has long been engaged in strategies to manage population health. From the establishment of the Extended Programme on Immunisation in 1977 to the 1978 Alma Ata declaration which focused on the need to shore up the primary healthcare system.

Efforts have consistently continued along these lines and, admittedly, we have made much progress over the last few decades.

Although we have seen an improvement in general life expectancy, which was 76 years as at 2016, we seem to be going backwards with the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases.

Earlier this year, I wrote an article about computer vision and how it can positively impact healthcare.

This kind of artificial intelligence (AI) is already a feature of health technology and is used to aid in diagnosis and treatment. AI research in health has been happening for years with spinal stimulation and brain computer interface.

I have had some experience implementing technology in entities that are completely new to it. This is not an easy process and can result in extended delays if not undertaken clinically.

My experiences include implementing health-system-related technology at entities such as pharmacies, hospitals, and medical practices. Like any normal change process, these things require a strategic approach.

For years, we have been hearing of the inability of the Government and researchers to get adequate information on cancer in Jamaica.

Sure, a registry exists, but the information it contains is apparently only for Kingston and St Andrew. That, obviously, cannot be a sufficient representation of the reality in Jamaica.

With the ever-increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases including cancer, accurate data is important for the Government and others to determine the best interventions, especially given the limited resources that exist in the health sector.

The issue of medical records was once again thrust into the spotlight with a recent Supreme Court decision which ordered that parents be given access to their baby's health records within 24 hours.

The hospital had refused to hand them over. Since then, the question is still up in the air as to who owns medical records, prompting Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton to seek an opinion from the attorney general.