A Health Information Infrastructure for the

AmericasA Vision of the Possible

Once upon a time...

The world was a Babel TowerEvery community was an island

Then, the global digital network arrived...

Internet Growth

Global Networks Density

Internet Connectivity:Latin America and

Caribbean

Smart Cards

• Portable medical record

• Integration of health care information

• Health system management

• Information quality and standardization

• Low cost

Telemedicine

• Transmission of patient data

• Remote interaction

• Remote control

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

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

Distance Education

• Independence of physical location and time

• Optimization of learning

• Ideal for continuedmedical education,recertification

• Internet andvideoconferencing

Internet Resources

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

HII Requirements

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

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

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

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