THE Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), will next week move one step closer to realising its vision of establishing a National Electronic Patient-Care Record (EMR).The Health Ministry, on October 10, is slated to engage the New York-based Oshi Center for Health and Social Policy on the establishment of an electronic medical record (EMR) pilot study. Speaking with the Chronicle, Public Health Minister Dr George Norton said all systems are in place to facilitate the meeting here in Guyana.

The MoPH hopes that transparency and accountability in Guyana’s healthcare sector would be improved with the use of information communication technologies. The APNU+AFC coalition had, in its 2015 manifesto, pledged to improve the country’s health systems and services by strengthening the health surveillance units and the data collection and laboratory services.
And when completed, the electronic medical record (EMR) pilot project will form part of the government’s massive E-Governance operations.

Currently, the government is working to incorporate the operations of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) into the E-Governance operations. The NDMA has not had a board appointed in over two decades, and this is an issue that has severely hampered the work of the authority.

The NDMA Act of 1983 provides the appropriate framework through which government can address the ICT needs of the public sector. In this regard, the government will place the NDMA and E-Government Project under a single administrative system.
(Svletana Marshall)