Learnings from Japan: National Health IT Networks are required

Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Title: Learnings from Japan: National Health IT Networks are requiredAuthors: Nrip Nihalanihttp://www.plus91.inhttp://technology4doctors.blogspot.com

Learnings from Japan: National Health IT Networks are requiredby Nrip Nihalani

Source: Technology for Doctors (http://www.technology4doctors.blogspot.com)

The past few days have involved almost all of us praying for Japan

which was ravaged by a severe earthquake and tsunami. Japan's most

powerful earthquake in 140 years struck the north-east coast on March

11th 2011, triggering a massive tsunami leaving behind many homeless and

stranded. (Information and Situation Report from WHO )

As we continue praying for hope in Japan, we are also learning all we can

about how disasters can impact the way we live and seek to improve. Sadly,

Japan now faces severe logistical problems and with the latest news on the

mishap at a nuclear reactor, the situation only seems to be getting worse.

While Japanese officials have more pressing issues on their hands, a

problem that will arise as time progresses will be that those left alive may

find themselves without their medical records. Natural disasters wipe out

everything — including paper medical records as well as computer and

communication networks.

In this time of national crisis, it would have certainly been helpful for Japan

to have a robust Healthcare IT network in place. A collaborative one where

it is easy to share data, which is securely backed up redundantly in multiple

locations that would leverage geographical diversity as a means of

countering nature’s unpredictability: Geographical Division Multiplexing if

you please;

While Japan does have a Healthcare IT strategy setup, with benefits and

stimulus funds, it is relatively new and yet to mature. Health data

digitization and Electronic Record Keeping is still in its infancy. Japan does

not boast of large scale Electronic Medical Record coverage.

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Wouldn’t any country ride out disasters better with health data sharing in

place? This should be taken as a wakeup call as well as a learning lesson by

all nations which haven’t yet devoted time and money to setting up

Nationwide Health IT Infrastructures.

India for one must be looking at learning from this. Having a Nationwide

Health IT Strategy should be treated as important as a Tsunami Alerting

System (TAS). Purists will argue that a Nationwide Health IT System is not

intended for alerting and helping contain situations like the TAS. And they

are not completely wrong.

In many cases it has been observed that long term benefits are eventually

forgotten. Instead, this concept of “Long Term benefits” must be replaced

with Pre-planned Goals which must be “Sought” on maturity of a model.

Now, any system can provide a set of benefits directly on implementation,

and an additional set when it has matured.

Similarly, the use case of using a Nationwide Health IT System for

predicting and alerting requires a certain amount of usage at first.

A sophisticated and mature Nationwide Healthcare Network built using

technology can identify the emergence of possible pandemics. Trends in

symptoms can help identify risk areas, and collaborative diagnosis can help

is sharing treatment plans and improving them.

One must understand that if maturity of a network is required for additional

goals and since that takes time, one must seek to implement early.

Links of Interest

WHO Page on Environmental Health in Emergencies

WHO page on Myths and Realities in Disaster Situations





http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/myths/en/index.html

http://www.who.int/environmental_health_emergencies/en/index.html


About Plus91:

Plus91 is a Healthcare Technology firm developing Innovative High Quality Solutions for the Indian Healthcare Industry. These vary in complexity from Simple Practice Management Suites to complicated Telemedicine Enabled EMR's. Plus91 is defining what the next generation of Healthcare needs to be. Maximized across locations, people, solutions and verticals; we cater to a growing mass of people in an integrated and ever changing environment.

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Learnings from Japan: National Health IT Networks are required