Azlan Othman
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.
This was said by Minister of Health Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar at the 19th Legislative Council (LegCo) session yesterday in response to LegCo member Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji 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.
