The Government of Egypt and its Ministry of Health have established several
e-Health programs to bring better diagnostic and health services to a wider
segment of the Egyptian society. MCIT has facilitated the integration of ICT in
health services and the provision of medical education to remote or underserved
areas of Egypt. The e-health initiative is inspired by pursuing equal
opportunities for health services anywhere in Egypt, and expanding medical
insurance to all citizens.
The principle objectives of the e-Health initiative are as follows:
- Extend better medical diagnostic services to rural areas
- Provide a training facility for the medical community
- Acquire international consultations for special cases
- Reduce the cost of health care through better patient management
- Optimize utilization of expertise and resources
- Provide an advanced medical services in emergencies
- Create an electronic databases for medical records
Emergency Medical Call Center and Ambulance Service
MCIT and the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) are cooperating to
establish an emergency call center for Greater Cairo. The project aims to
develop the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in the Greater Cairo area
and improve the speed and efficiency of its services by providing the Egyptian
Ambulance Services Authority with a computerized ambulance dispatch system.
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National Network for Citizen Health
The project provides the most recent automated systems to develop central
management of treatment by the government, and direct patients to different
therapeutic units, such as hospitals and specialized centers in the country.
The project aims to develop quality control and performance evaluation systems
to guarantee the delivery of subsidy to those for whom it is intended, and
guarantee system efficiency. It also aims to develop the information systems
and databases of the central department for citizen health treatment by the
government, and connect all peripheral departments and hospitals through a
Virtual Private Network.
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Information System Units in Governmental Hospitals
The project aims to facilitate the work of MoHP by establishing an
information systems unit in 700 hospitals nationwide equipped with hi-speed
internet PCs, a Web Cam and a scanner. In 2008, information systems units were
established in ten hospitals as a pilot phase, to be replicated in 262
hospitals, 252 of which are public and central hospitals while 37 are insurance
hospitals. The units are used to facilitate the national network for citizen
health treatment, patients’ registration, financial and administration
operations and training Medical staff.
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National Healthcare Capacity Building Project
The chief aim of the project is to create a pool of highly qualified and
competent healthcare professionals who are capable of designing and
implementing health systems and programs. To achieve so, the project provides
training to MOHP staff including doctors, nurses, administrative staff and
technicians). The training program is divided into three categories: Basic IT
Skills, biomedical Awareness and Biomedical Informatics Professional Training.
The project will also establish a central unit that links hospitals and keeps
medical records, establish an electronic radiology and lab analysis medical
records database for patients and transfer and circulate radiation and lab
analysis between hospitals and the central unit in Fum El Khalij.
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Pilot Project for Hospital Automation
In April 2008, MCIT initiated a pilot project for automating hospitals’
work in an attempt to facilitate services to the public and support decision
making. The project’s main deliverable includes a comprehensive database
comprising electronic medical files for each and every patent. The pilot phase
includes the automation of three public hospitals, two in Cairo and one in
Suez.
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Women’s Mobile Health Unit Project
The national campaign for early detection of breast cancer received a boost
in October 2007 when Egypt’s First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated the
"Women's Mobile Health Unit Project" in Cairo as part of a joint collaboration
between the Ministry of Health and Population and MCIT. Egyptian women over the
age of 45 can visit the Units for mammography scans for the early discovery of
breast cancer. The Units can also measure blood pressure and blood sugar
levels.
The national project encompasses a hi-tech communications network, mobile units
equipped with advanced medical equipment, fixed units, and a main center in
Kasr Al-Aini hospital and a main center in the center of Excellence (CoE) in
Fom El Khalij, staffed by specialists, to which data and images from all the
units can be sent electronically, via satellites and high-speed lines. The
network transmits breast scans to specialized physicians who review the scans
and report back to the mobile units where recommended treatment or any medical
advice is passed on.
By providing remote diagnosis, the project is expanding the spectrum of health
care provision nationwide and saves the time, cost and effort of moving
patients to specialized medical centers for examination or follow-up.
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National Cancer Registry Program
The program utilizes state-of-the-art data mining technologies to extract a
variety of health indicators for investigating reasons behind the spread of
cancer. As an initial phase, the city of Aswan was selected to be enlisted in
the program. A fully equipped data collection center was prepared to be ready
to receive all patients’ data to be registered using the latest data mining and
recording applications. A high-end data transfer application was also developed
to transfer patient’s data to the National Cancer Archive.
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The Suzanne Mubarak Center for Women’s Health in Alexandria
This project, executed from 2006 to 2008, facilitated better health
services for women in Alexandria by establishing has modern healthcare
facilities and administration systems at the Suzanne Mubarak Center for Women’s
Health. It provided professional and specialized services in women's
healthcare, specialized consultations through the telemedicine facilities, and
the center created a digital health file for every patient containing personal
information, disease history, medicines prescribed, and number of visits, with
the records linked to the person's national ID number. A digital library for
research was also established at the center, enabling hosting of national and
international conferences. The projects’ scope also constituted an agreement
signing with research university UC Devis for remote medical consultations.
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IT Health Master Plan
In April 2008, MCIT laid out the IT Health Master Plan for the Ministry of
Health and Population to be implemented jointly with IBM. The project aims at
analyzing the current situation of MoHP and identifying its key objectives and
future vision, analyzing the current situation of Egypt’s health sector
vis-à-vis the international trends in the health sector outlining possible gaps
and formulating tactical strategies for achieving so.
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National PACS Project
The project aims to develop a centralized database (PACS and RIS system) in
the main center (Center of Excellence CoE) in Fum El-Khalij that integrates
clinical images, scanned documents, and other non-textual data into patient’s
electronic medical records. A local database was also created in the eight
hospitals hospital covered by the project. Each of the hospitals’ databases
will be automatically synchronized with the central database in Fum El Khalij.
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Integrated National Health Record System
The Integrated Health Record System project aims to build a national
database of health records and a Virtual Private Network linking primary health
care units all over Egypt. The data is recorded by specialists and service
providers. The database is managed by an information system that administers
data retrieval, health indicators and medical consultations.
Principal objectives of the project are as follows:
- Enable better storage and management of patients’ records
- Conduct regular analysis of the community health trends and needs
- Conduct health information modeling and prediction
- Identify healthcare requirements for continuous service improvement
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