BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/Asia News Network): The increase in budget for the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) information technology, amounting to BND18 million is mainly aimed at upgrading BruHealth, a software to extract data from BruHIMS (medical record) system.
BruHealth is extended for secondary use to upgrade the national healthcare system.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Mohd Isham Jaafar said this at the 19th Legislative Council (LegCo) session on Tuesday (March 21) in response to LegCo member Dato Seri Setia Abdul Rahman Ibrahim’s query on the increase in expenditure of information system.
The minister said the budget is also used for data registry for heart diseases, diabetes and cancer as well as to measure health index of every individual, adding that it will be extended to early detection of disease for health programmes.
For instance, he said, it can detect cancer early through genetic sequencing to find the gene that can cause cancer and subsequently their family members.
The minister also said with BruHealth’s artificial intelligence, the MoH can forecast the nation’s health problem in 15-20 years.
Hence with the data obtained, like the number of diabetes in the system and subsequent leg amputation allow the hospital to prepare prosthesis and rehabilitation.
The minister said there are improvements in infrastructure, such as Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital wards, adding more intensive care unit, renovating orthopaedic and screening services and updated PABX to receive customers phone calls.
On increasing expenditure to buy medicine, the minister said the MoH has engaged a local government-linked company to be the single buyer, resulting in cost reduction.
