The Jamaica Observer published an article on August 26, 2020, about the improvement in the efficiency of the healthcare sector digitization could bring. Here’s a summary:
- In the Caribbean, health care management systems are often kept in filing cabinets or individual cloud storage, which causes gaps in the system that more digital and unified approaches could address.
- Digitization in the health industry could be a powerful tool for the health and wellness of Jamaicans. An efficient route is through the digitization of Healthcare Data Management (HDM) systems which would show a holistic view of patients and improve health outcomes, among other things.
- Achieving this requires a simplified process of sharing historical health data within the sector which protects the patients’ privacy, making a digitized HDM system an ideal choice.
- Although data sharing can rigger hesitation, mistrust, and discomfort, there are measures put in place to protect people so the benefits can be reaped without the misuse of sensitive information.
- Jamaica recently passed a Data Protection Act (DPA), which will hold companies accountable for the privacy and protection of the data they collect, store, and process. The Act gives rights to Jamaicans to have more control over the data collected about them and its usage.
- The DPA makes it possible to develop a client-centred health sector that can maximize the use and interpretation of a patient’s health history, which reduces the risk of inaccurate, uninformed diagnoses.
- The proper use of data is imperative to any industry’s success and it begins with improvements in the collection and dissemination of data.
Source: jamaicaobserver.com
Contributed by Racquel Bailey from Jamaica. Racquel is a member of our Women in InfoSec Caribbean (WISC) initiative on Discord. WISC is a non-profit initiative supporting Caribbean women and girls to develop a career in Information Security. Learn more about WISC at wiscaribbean.org.