IT IMPROVES PUBLIC HEALTH IN MALAYSIA

By Adrienne Valdez (HEALTHCARE IT)
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin announced continuous efforts in upgrading public health to better serve citizens through information technology“Our government has always endorsed adoption of new technologies. Besides the identification of Telehealth by the Health Ministry since the 1990s, the public health domain in the ministry has moved forward in the use of ICT,” Rosnah said in an official statement.
Rosnah futher explained that although the medical field had been a late starter in the information and technology era, not due to resistance but more so from its complexity, it was a beginning that needed to be continued.

Several public health disease surveillance systems were currently in use, notably the Communicable Diseases Control Information System e-notification, Tuberculosis Information System, e-Dengue and e-Measles.
The Deputy Health Minister also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Faculty of Medicine of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the United Arab Emirates University to launch a strategic partnership in public health research.
“We are experiencing an increase in life expectancy, reduction in maternal and infant mortality and the elimination or reduction of many communicable diseases as attested to by the recognition given to Malaysia by world bodies such as WHO,” Rosnah added.
“IT is the way to go to achieve greater performance and optimise the use of limited resources.”