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Inter Systems were celebrating, in Orlando , Florida , 30 years of their own innovation in computer database development. The
software was recently installed in the Eastern Province where it now
stores information on all patients admitted to the government hospitals
in Batticaloa District. It was developed for the Ministry of HealthCare and Nutrition in collaboration with the World Health Organization. The
development was funded by the Austrian/Swiss Red Cross using money
raised for tsunami-hit areas. Work started on the project in July 2006. The first small hospital ( Chenkalady Rural Hospital ) started using computers in February 2007. The first large hospital in the project (Batticaloa Teaching Hospital) started in April 2007. By the end of 2007, 11 hospitals in Batticaloa District were using computers. The
computer program is designed to improve the documentation of patients
treated in hospitals in Sri Lanka and to speed up the notification of
infectious diseases.
In each hospital there is a
computer installed at the front desk where patients are registered and
another in each ward where they are treated. In the wards the staff can see patient details and enter the diagnosis into the computer. This can then print useful reports such as the bed head ticket and patient discharge letters. The
system contributes to public health by notifying cases to the Medical
Officers of Health and producing health statistics automatically. While
Hospital Information Systems have been used in the West for many years,
there has been little success in computerizing medical information in
developing countries. This is due to the complexity of most commercial databases and the need for large expensive computers to run them. The Caché database system from InterSystems is not like that. It is easy to program and runs quicker than other commercial databases. This
means that it can be installed on low-cost computers. A small PC
costing 100,000 Rupees is sufficient to run a Caché-based database in a
rural hospital.
The Chairman of Lunar Technologies -
Mr. Gamini Karunaratne - says
“Although the MDS software is not a
complete Hospital Information System it does provide a basic medical
record for the patient. Hospital staff find it easy to use compared to
the old system of writing everything in a book. As well as notifying
infectious diseases, the software provides hospital directors with
useful information to help run their hospitals. And in every one of
those 11 government hospitals it is the nurses and doctors who are
entering the medical data, not administrators or clerks.”
Dr.
Pole believes that this is just the beginning of more interesting
developments to come, as the System has the potential for improvement
to cover many other areas in patient care & hospital information. The
system provides a good start to the computerization of hospitals in Sri
Lanka , and may even prove useful in other developing countries.
Pictured
with the award is Dr Denham Pole (Managing Director) left, and Mr
Senthilruban Thurairajasingam (Senior software Engineer) right, of Lunar
Technologies Ltd.
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