A%20Health%20Information%20Infrastructure%20for%20the%20Americas

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A Health Information Infrastructure for the
Americas

• A Vision of the Possible

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Once upon a time...
The world was a Babel TowerEvery community was
an island
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Then, the global digital network arrived...
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Internet Growth
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Global Networks Density
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Internet ConnectivityLatin America and Caribbean
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Smart Cards

• Portable medical record
• Integration of health care information
• Health system management
• Information quality and standardization
• Low cost

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Telemedicine

• Transmission of patient data
• Remote interaction
• Remote control

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Personal Telemedicine

• Simpler systems for use at home or in the
  workplace
• Monitoring of chronic diseases, pregnancy,
  post-surgery
• Permanent or temporary
• Good cost/benefit ratio

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Computerized Patient Record

• Partial or total replacement of the paper record
• Gains in quality, uptodateness, completeness,
  legibility, acessibility, etc.
• Network-based integration and access
• Standardization

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Distance Education

• Independence of physical location and time
• Optimization of learning
• Ideal for continuedmedical education,recertifica
  tion
• Internet andvideoconferencing

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Internet Resources
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The Challenges

• Using information technology to reach health
  underserved populations
• Transforming health education through the
  information superhighway
• Ensuring and improving access to health
  information by all
• Building new partnerships based on telematics and
  computing

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HII Requirements

• A Health Information Infrastructure should be
• International
• Interdisciplinary
• Integrated
• Accessible by all
• Affordable
• Oriented to people

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HII Requirements (2)

• It should provide timely data, linking different
  databases and aggregate information in a variety
  of ways in order to meet the needs of patients,
  providers, and policy makers.
• It should also provide multiple communication
  links between health care providers, patients,
  educators, institutions, payors, policy makers,
  etc.
• It should widely employ international and open
  standards to facilitate communication and
  information interchange

Canadian National Forum on Health
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Ideas

• Community health information networks
• Virtual health communities
• Using clinical information systems to improve
  health care
• Decision support systems
• Quality assessment systems
• Information technology support for public health
• The changing roles of patients and health workers
  in an electronic environment

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Opportunities

• Friends of the National Library of Medicine Third
  Annual Conference The Emerging Health
  Information Infrastructure (HII98). April
  27-29, 1998, Georgetown University Conference
  Center, Washington, D.C., USA