The Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) which currently exists in the Dominica Integrated Information System, DIISH, is currently being utilized in the test phase of the Dominica Medical Information System, DMedIS.
DMedIS which began its testing in 2014 is the core of the integrated medical system which includes the pharmacy system, lab information and radiology.
DMedIS currently captures demographic data, admissions and will shortly include medical information.
Information Communication Technology Specialist with the Ministry of Health, Peter Ricketts, revealed that PACS was not an initial application in the testing phase but it is already being praised by doctors at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
“Doctors used to have to leave their wards to read hard copy study findings off the radiology computer or a CD would have to be burned and taken to him/her or the film would have to be printed.
“Now, with the PACS system, the computers are configured to the system and doctors can access the studies from the wards. Now, since we are on a national network, all we have to do is configure a computer [anywhere] and your studies are accessible.”
Ricketts affirms that the application will soon present real time data on diagnosis and statistics of non-communicable diseases and others which were previously difficult to access.
At present, the hospital epidemiologist is already seeing the benefits of DMedIS
“The epidemiologist has to prepare a weekly report which requires baseline data- he needs access to the number of weekly admissions. Before, he would have to go to every ward and count manually. Something which took a day or two now takes a click of a button.”
Currently, more recent patient records are being entered into the system, and later older data will be added.
Ricketts expressed that doctors are excited as time-consuming searches for records are no longer required.
He insists that paper records give a false sense of security since anyone can request medical records without a back trace.
“With the electronic system, we have an audit trail. From the moment you start typing or click a name, that’s recorded.
“If there was a mistake, a request must be made for that record to be deleted and then re-entered.”
He says users cannot modify the data input into the system after it is saved. Only medical doctors, however, can add information.
Ricketts explained that security was a major aspect in the development of the application. He is confident that it is almost impossible for unauthorized users to get into the new system.
Currently, role-based access is the core of DMedIS which limits unauthorized access to data.
Nurses currently do not have access to the system beyond patients’ vitals, summaries, prescriptions and allergies since they are not able to diagnose patients.
