"… e-health programs to bring better diagnostic and health services to a wider segment of the Egyptian society"
Egypt’s ICT Strategy 2007-2010
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 facilityfor 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
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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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 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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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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| 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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The national campaign for early detection of breast cancer received a boost in October 2007 when the "Women's Mobile Health Unit Project" was inaugurated 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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| 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 Regional Center for Women’s Health in Alexandria. 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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