A Health Information Infrastructure for the Americas A Vision of the Possible

Once upon a time... The world was a Babel Tower Every community was an island

Then, the global digital network arrived...

Internet Growth

Global Networks Density

Internet Connectivity: Latin America and Caribbean

Smart Cards Portable medical record Integration of health care information Health system management Information quality and standardization Low cost

Telemedicine Transmission of patient data Remote interaction Remote control

Personal Telemedicine Simpler systems for use at home or in the workplace Monitoring of chronic diseases, pregnancy, post-surgery Permanent or temporary Good cost/benefit ratio

Computerized Patient Record Partial or total replacement of the paper record Gains in quality, uptodateness, completeness, legibility, acessibility, etc. Network-based integration and access Standardization

Distance Education Independence of physical location and time Optimization of learning Ideal for continued medical education, recertification Internet and videoconferencing

Internet Resources

The Challenges Using information technology to reach health underserved populations Transforming health education through the information superhighway Ensuring and improving access to health information by all Building new partnerships based on telematics and computing

HII Requirements A Health Information Infrastructure should be: –International –Interdisciplinary –Integrated –Accessible by all –Affordable –Oriented to people

HII Requirements (2) It should provide timely data, linking different databases and aggregate information in a variety of ways in order to meet the needs of patients, providers, and policy makers. It should also provide multiple communication links between health care providers, patients, educators, institutions, payors, policy makers, etc. It should widely employ international and open standards to facilitate communication and information interchange Canadian National Forum on Health

Ideas Community health information networks Virtual health communities Using clinical information systems to improve health care –Decision support systems –Quality assessment systems Information technology support for public health The changing roles of patients and health workers in an electronic environment

Opportunities Friends of the National Library of Medicine Third Annual Conference: The Emerging Health Information Infrastructure (HII98). April 27-29, 1998, Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, D.C., USA