Innovative technologies to reduce medical cost
View(s):By Jayampathy Jayasinghe
One of the computer systems available in Sri Lanka’s health sector is to link the Central hospital with the Central Medical Supply Division on the availability of drugs needed by the hospital.
“About 30 hospitals in the country have began compiling records of OPD data on computers not connected to the central computer system and are now working to install this method of covering another 40 hospitals in the country,” said the Deputy Minister of Health and Nutrition and Medicine Faizal Cassim at the launch of Microsoft medical systems in diagnosing diseases, held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo last week.
He said however in some 5-6 hospitals x ray images are transmitted directly to the doctor’s computer instead of the negative photo being brought to him, to cut delays.
The Minister welcomed the Microsoft initiative to install a system to cover the whole gamut of the country’s health sector with their new technological innovations. Referring to the sophisticated medical system developed by Microsoft, he said in Sri Lanka the only method where doctors can diagnose a cardiac problem was by doing an angiography test to decide the size of the stent to be used which was costly. He said although Sri Lanka has access to medical services throughout the country, improving the health services in rural areas to address the issues of an aging population was necessary.
Meanwhile the Microsoft system showcased a step-by- step scenario of patients in need of urgent medical attention by accessing through their smartphones and following up through with tests and consultations with specialists and aftercare. With the help of Microsoft partners such as Ring MD Clinic to Cloud, Vital Images, Proskriptive, One View, Hemas, Xelution, and Connected Life, the technologies for each medical need was demonstrated.
Director, Health and Social Service Public Sector of Microsoft – Asia Pacific Region Callum Bir said the new systems developed by Microsoft provides health care to the rich and the poor at a low cost. “With platforms like Azure and Hololens, we have enabled developers to collaborate with our teams to create new solutions to address or improve health care services and the speed of diagnosing and treating patients in need. The future of healthcare promises to be more intuitive and will help address the needs of the world’s aging population,” he said.