Dubai to launch centralised medical files for students

All students in Dubai will soon have a medical file which will be accessible to schools, medical facilities, and parents. This is to ensure that all stakeholders involved in a student’s health are informed about their medical history.

“Currently we are doing a total change in the system so that everybody is connected,” Dr Ramadan Alblooshi, advisor to the Director General of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) told Khaleej Times. “We will launch a central medical file of students which will be shared with their parents and schools so that if the student is moving from one school to another, the new school will know if they have a certain disease or certain medication.”

He said the idea was to make sure the school health community was on the same page. “The community is basically composed of a teacher, principal, father and mother or guardians, and the student themself,” he said. “So, we need to make this connection together in one platform.”

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Dr Ramadan, who also functions as Director of the Public Health Protection Department, was speaking on the sidelines of the Healthcare Future Summit, which began in Dubai on Tuesday.

He added that the DHA would also begin focusing on mental health in schools. “We announced the mental health strategy for Dubai, and one of the categories we will focus on are the students,” he said. “We're going to talk about a lot of issues like bullying, developmental issues, needs of people with determination and so on.

Recently, several schools in Dubai sent out a medical consent form by DHA’s Public Health Protection Department to ensure maintenance and monitoring of their ward’s health and wellbeing. The form sought consent for several preventive services including screening for vision acuity, hearing test, dental checkup, scoliosis screening and a comprehensive medical examination. A DHA vaccination guide for parents also underscored the importance of ensuring children’s vaccinations were up to date.

The authority have also been working to increase awareness about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, Dr Ramadan said. Recommended to be administered by the age of 11 or 12, the HPV vaccine protects against genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer.

“The challenge was not the vaccine itself but the awareness and acceptance from families,” he said. “So in the coming years we're going to have a lot of session of awareness programs for parents, teachers and even doctors.”

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