Effectiveness, Patient Safety and People Centricity are key elements of Quality of Care. Globally, Health Systems have been trying to meet quality expectations by introducing transformation that makes care more integrated, participatory, and personalised. Some of the challenges in rapid transformation were made apparent by COVID-19, where we saw digital technologies come to the rescue. However, significant work still lies ahead of us, and we are glad that this conversation has taken centre stage like never before.
Etisalat Digital, a business unit of Etisalat, is playing an increasingly important role in realising health sector transformation using technology enablers. In an interview with Omnia Health Insights, Khalid Ghaloua Adine, Director, Digital Health at Etisalat, emphasised the value that Etisalat Digital is creating both for the public and private sector. Khalid, who comes from a health informatics background and has spent 17 years in the health industry across Middle East, LATAM and Europe, highlighted some of the strategic imperatives they are currently working on. Most notably, the roll out of their new cloud based digital platform, an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, that addresses critical barriers faced by medical practitioners and clinics in the private sector to transition from paper based to electronic record keeping.
Etisalat Digital’s Cloud-EMR, a part of a suite of solutions called Business Edge for Healthcare, provides essential digital tools for health practitioners to manage their day-to-day workflow. In addition to patient record keeping, it includes tools for patient scheduling and appointment management, placing laboratory and pharmacy orders, billing, and electronic claims. Necessary regulatory and security compliances, such as two-layer authentication, role and privilege-based access, and localised code catalogues specific to each Emirate are also built-in.
Mr. Adine further elaborated that capabilities to support modern inter-operability standards such as HL7, FHIR and CDA allows the EMR platform to integrate with Health Information Exchange systems of different Emirates and communicate data in real-time to improve patient outcomes. He said: “We are not just providing a software system, but have built necessary services around it making adoption easier so that healthcare providers don’t have to think about maintenance and can focus on managing their practice and providing best possible care to their patients.”
Etisalat Digital’s vision behind the Cloud-EMR platform is twofold: Firstly, to support government initiatives like Malaffi and NABIDH with connecting healthcare providers and creating a truly unified database of patient records; secondly to enable digital transformation of medical practices, helping them find cost efficiencies in day-to-day operations and elevating the quality of care to their patients.
