The condition in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age may invariably affect their state of health and well-being as well as impact their health decisions.
These are referred to as social determinants of health and include income level, social status, education, employment and working conditions, housing, healthcare access, personal health practices, transportation and nutrition.
It's estimated that at least 25 per cent of Jamaicans have mental illness. Still, we hear that many disorders such as anxiety and depression go undiagnosed, and so when we think about, much more of our population could be experiencing some form of mental illness at points in their life. The Ministry of Health has been moving towards more of a community mental-health approach, allowing patients to be reintegrated into their community after treatment rather than being kept at specialised facilities indefinitely.
Important strides have been made in health sectors worldwide to move forward with achieving a complete digital ecosystem with electronic medical records (EMR) central to this.
Jamaicans are highly suspicious of technology, especially those that require the sharing of personal information. I was recently privy to a discussion among doctors and they were of the view that there should be great concern if EMR is implemented in government health facilities as too many people would be able to access individuals' health records.
ANYONE WHO has been sick and has had to take medicines for whatever reason knows that pharmaceuticals can be quite expensive.
The pharmaceutical industry worldwide is a US multibillion dollar one. Each year the Jamaican Government spends in excess of $8 billion to provide pharmaceuticals to public-sector patients through hospitals, health centres and the National Health Fund (NHF).
Hospitals worldwide seek to reduce the length of time patients are admitted as this not only saves the facility resources but it can also be safer for the patient to be treated and released as soon as possible.
Health Technology provides a means of accessing various data that can be leveraged to improve population health and wellness and save resources that would have been used for treatment and care.
Data is powerful and can help with a number of issues if we know how, and are willing to, use it. The digitisation of the healthcare sector will lead to that sector becoming data rich.
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).
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.
HEALTHCARE IS driven by market forces just like any other business. While it is not the conventional, product development and sale or service offering and acquisition business, healthcare encompasses both these concepts. If one is in the business of healthcare, then one has to ensure that its market is being adequately served.
Many persons may open their mouths in shock to hear me referring to healthcare as a business, because traditionally, we have looked at it as some kind of philanthropic venture.
