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Access to Health Files through Unified Database

DUBAI — Physicians and patients will soon have equal access to health files maintained in public and private hospitals countrywide through a unified health database, the UAE’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced.

The unified system will also eliminate the need for patients to visit hospitals frequently as patients and physicians can communicate online through the system.

On Tuesday, the MoH launched a major Hospital Information System (HIS) called ‘Wareed’, which will be implemented over three years.

HIS will link all 14 MoH hospitals and 68 affiliated clinics across Dubai and the Northern Emirates by October 2011 in the first phase, and will include private hospitals at a later stage. Abu Dhabi rolled out a similar system in August this year.

MoH physicians will gain access to patient records after being given a smart card/finger scan or a secure password by the hospital/PHC, while patients can access their records through the ministry’s web portal by using a dedicated password.

Minister of Health Humaid Al Quttami said, “This is a pioneering project... and is in line with the world’s most advanced public healthcare regimes.”

The HIS system follows similar systems being run in countries such as Turkey, the UK, Malaysia and in Europe, said the minister.

Al Qasimi Hospital and a primary health care centre in Sharjah will be the first to be linked to the system by mid-2009.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com