The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made healthcare staff work with physical distancing; hence Telemedicine/Telehealth is receiving renewed attention. Although Telemedicine/Telehealth is one of the major components of healthcare in most developed countries, Sri Lanka is yet to harness its full potential. The digital health ecosystem is made up of multiple interconnected solutions aimed at achieving the common goal of healthcare delivery. In the current situation, Telehealth, Telemedicine, and Internetbased Prescriptions are major components of the ecosystem. Internet-based prescriptions, which is one of the widely used Telemedicine practices, became legalised at the beginning of this century in the Western world with the incorporation of appropriate Telemedicine guidelines. Many Telemedicine solutions have emerged in Sri Lanka over the past decade including video conferencing, audio consultations, teleprescriptions and prescriptions sent by Short Message Service. These have been developed in an ad hoc manner. Therefore, the medical community, as well as the general public, must understand how Telemedicine and internet-based prescribing enable the delivery of healthcare services in the local context. In this paper, we review the current status of Telehealth services in Sri Lanka and discuss the need for regulations to ensure maximum benefit from these services.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Government of Sri Lanka realised the possibility of COVID-19 becoming a pandemic and its probability of reaching Sri Lanka, even before the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. GOSL adopted a strategy focusing on minimising the risk of entry, containment, flattening the curve and minimising fatalities. To ensure social distancing for persons with chronic illnesses, a guideline was issued to deliver the medications to the doorstep of the care recipients who attend the government sector hospital clinics for Non-Communicable Diseases. To facilitate the delivery of medications, National Hospital, Kandy decided to use Patient Information Management systems available at the hospital. The care recipients were contacted over the phone, and their data was taken and fed into the electronic systems. Medical officers entered relevant prescriptions to the system, and then electronic prescriptions were used by the pharmacy for dispensing medications. Insulin was delivered to care recipients through primary and secondary hospitals of the Department of Health Services of Central Province with the help of Regional Director of Health Services Kandy. All other medications were seal packed and delivered via the Department of Posts – Sri Lanka. There were several challenges, including staff training, process flow issues, the inadequacy of resources and change management concerns regarding the procedure. Despite the challenges, 90% of care recipients of Non-Communicable Diseases clinics were registered to the system, electronic prescriptions were issued, and medications were delivered to them through the government postal service. This demonstrated that during COVID-19 pandemic, institutions under three different government sector organisations in the Central Province were able to collaborate and efficiently adapt to the urgent, unexpected situations.
Introduction: Sri Lanka is a developing country, the resources in health sector is limited. This is particularly true in Outpatient Departments (OPD) and Preliminary Care Units (PCU). This can be overcome by utilizing available resources efficiently by identifying bottle necks in care delivery process. Process simulation is a popular approach used worldwide for similar purposes. Non–clinical–data in health sector i.e. waiting time and service delivery time could be used as variables in this approach. The objective of the study was to design a process simulation based on non-clinical-data for optimization of emergency care medical services in the state sector health institutions in Sri Lanka. Methodology: An analysis of the current first contact care systems in the Accident and Orthopaedic Service (AOS) of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka and PCU at Base Hospital, Panadura was carried out to identify the temporal dimension of resource allocation for time-domain simulation. Process simulation & modelling was done in the AOS by using Arena® software. Results: Congestion was observed in the OPD - AOS in the morning hours. This was mainly at the X-ray department, as 85% of total OPD patients were directed to take X-rays. There was no reduction in waiting time observed by increasing the number of doctors or pharmacists. However, there was a reduction of waiting time (from 97 minutes to 1 minute) observed by increasing X-ray stations from one to two. Conclusions: Process simulation can be used to identify the delays in the clinical care pathway and hence, to allocate & utilize resources effectively & efficiently in hospital settings. Implementation of this process can be advantageous in developing countries like Sri Lanka, where there are limited financial resources.
Introduction: The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) established in 1978`in Sri Lanka, has continued to make excellent progress over the past four decades, most notably in terms of achieving high immunization coverage and disease control. When the perception of risk associated with vaccine preventable diseases decreases, the fear of adverse effects following immunization (AEFI) tend to increase. This can reduce compliance with vaccination, allowing for the re-emergence of controlled diseases. AEFI reporting is important as it is a direct measure of the efficiency of the immunization programme in a country. In Sri Lanka, a solid system of paper-based reporting is in place. AEFI systems are aimed at providing information that allow for continuous assessment of the safety of a given vaccine in the studied population in a timely manner. The objective of this study was to analyse the requirements of AEFI system and to develop a web-based system to report data from divisional and regional areas to the Epidemiology Unit. Methods: The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was to identify the data flow and the existing paper-based formats. In-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders were carried out as the second phase to gather requirements. The data gathered were qualitatively analysed to derive the requirements. Market research was done to identify the most suitable platform/system to cater the requirements. A system was customized using DHIS2 platform. Data sent in paper-based formats to the Epidemiology Unit for the first quarter of year 2019 were entered into the system by data entry operators as a pilot study. The system was then presented and evaluated by the AEFI experts at the Epidemiology Unit to see whether it derives the 'data for action'. Results: A set of requirements were derived as a result of qualitative analysis. The stakeholders prioritized the need to collect aggregate AEFI data island wide. Hence, DHIS2 platform was identified as suitable for the purpose and customized according to the needs of the users. the stakeholders accepted that the system derives the needed data and the data quality was better in the electronic system compared to the existing paper-based format. Conclusions: The DHIS2 based electronic system was suitable to capture AEFI. The developed system will be used countrywide at the Medical officer of Health level and regional levels to collect and report AEFI data to the provincial and national level. A future study should be done to evaluate the scalability of the system to record individual incidents at the clinic or field level.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
Introduction: In recent years, healthcare organizations have started treating data as a valuable asset as the proper management of data and information could lead to meaningful data use, improve service delivery, reduce risk and the lower cost of healthcare. Trust on the information in the healthcare setting is crucial. Health information governance concepts have been introduced to the health sector to face the new challenges imposed by the changing stakeholder expectations, technology and socio-political environment. The objective of this study was to review the literature to understand the current implementation and practice of health information governance in different countries. Methods: Literature was searched using Google, Google Scholar and PubMed with the combination of keywords “health” and “information governance”. To make the search more comprehensive similar terms such as “medical”, “clinical”, “record” and “data” were used. The search was limited to papers or documents written in English and available free of charge. Information was collected in to five broad categories; definition, scope, principles, laws and regulations, roles and responsibilities. Results: It was found that there is more the one definition for health information governance. It covered all the aspect of information management from information generation to destruction. Most common principles of IG were; accountability, integrity, protection, compliance, availability, retention, disposition, and transparency. It was found that there were different laws and regulations on data protection, freedom of information, computer misuse and crime, and health and social care related regulations and policies support the implementation of IG. Conclusion: There were many health information governance principles identified by different countries but not all principles were included in the IG frameworks when implementing. There were different laws and regulations support the implementation of IG. Roles and responsibilities were different form one country to another.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
Introduction: Cloud computing has the potential to restructure the way enterprises acquire, utilize and manage their requirements of computing resources efficiently and cost-effectively. This is true in health care organization in both the private and state sectors. However, health care service providers are traditionally considered to be slow technology adopters. For this cautious approach of slow adoption, there are numerous valid and obvious reasons i.e. security of patient data, cost of change, new technology not a primary focus. Therefore, this study carried out to find user concerns of cloud computing within the state health sector of Sri Lanka. Methods: A qualitative research method used. Non-probabilistic sampling technique was used as cloud computing is a new concept and awareness of cloud computing technologies still low even among ICT related staff. Results: Seven interviews carried out with those who were involved in health IT work in state health care organizations. The thematic areas appearing in cloud computing were; lack of knowledge in cloud computing technology, security, legal and privacy issues, political issues, computer misuse, disaster, theft of intellectual property, abuse of access privileges, data loss or damage and financial issues such as billing model. Conclusions: In the Sri Lankan healthcare context, cloud computing adoption has not yet started widely. The attitude towards cloud computing is influenced by the security risk and privacy concerns where a lack of policy and legislation were considered major contributing factors. Vendor lock is not a major concern among users as users were not exposed to change in cloud providers. The most preferable cloud service model is a “platform as a service” and most preferable cloud deploying model is “a hybrid cloud”. However, the cost of the cloud is not a major barrier and the lack of knowledge among key actors on different modalities of cloud computing is a barrier to its adoption. Hence such barriers should be addressed appropriately to succeed in cloud service adoption for better digital health in the country. Furthermore, cloud computing should be considered strongly in digital health strategy and blueprint of the country.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
The Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics (SLJBMI) is the official journal publication of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka. It is the only academic publication in Sri Lanka which focuses on the emerging field of health informatics. SLJBMI was launched in 2010 as an open access and peer reviewed e-journal. It was temporarily paused publishing since June 2015 and relaunched in 2019 with an improved reader friendly format .The mission of SLJBMI is to publish high-quality original research and other relevant publications that would contribute to the promotion of digital health and health informatics. It aspires to be the most prominent publishing spotlight related to health informatics in the region and to be the gathering platform of the renowned experts and enthusiasts worldwide.
