Health Care providers are being called upon to maximize the use of collected data to improve the health of the patients in Dominica.
Speaking at the Dominica Diabetes Association Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, Dr. Tomo Kanda, Pan American Health Organization Technical Adviser, said health information is scattered and must be integrated.
“The Health information is there but it’s kind of scattered, it has to be integrated for the improving of the patient’s health outcome,” she said.
“For example, a 53-year-old man has diabetes and one has also at the same time mental ill problems, those same person’s records are kept in different places so it’s not very integrated. If you collect the data it must be utilized … if you don’t use it don’t collect it,” Kanda stressed.
She also said that having patients empowered is a critical aspect in improving health.
“We want to see an improvement on health outcome…. in order for us to see an improvement we have to train two groups: one, the health professional general practitioner, nurses, community aid, community health … that’s not enough. We also have to empower patients and patient’s families,” she noted.
Meantime President of the Dominica Diabetes Association, Mavlyn Birmingham, said that the Association can now boast of greater emphasis on foot care for persons suffering from diabetes.
She said doctors and nurses in Dominica have received training in a programme sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation and Rotary International. “The training was divided into two modules and was conducted in October 2011 and September 2012 … as a result of the training there’s a lot more emphasis on foot care within our clinics,” she said.
The AGM is being held under the theme ‘Your Life, Your Health, Your Responsibility’.
Is this done in the hospitals too. Some times I really wonder. This is so primitive.
Dr.Kanda, thanks, we are getting there , just a little time our ICT,persons are trying their best, we just had new and bigger servers and we are working towards 1 record per person , no matter where u are on island, your medical recorrds will be pulled up.
I hope its not just about having big servers.The sustainability issue must be given equal attension. And I refer to having all the deciplines that this technology is going to impact on have thier concerns addressed.
I was appalled when a family member informed me that patients have to provide their own notebook to record their health information. The patient must bring along this notebook at each visit to have it updated (I assume it’s also used as reference by the medical professional).
I think that is so true. I think that health information should be computerized in order to allow for better integration of medical information. medical practitioners treating one patient does not have enough information about the patients record in order to make an informed decision about the person’s health. Medical record is too scattered among all the different health establishments the person has visited.