Development of electronic medical records to begin later this month

In keeping with the Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali-led Administration’s vision of developing a world-class healthcare system, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Mount Sinai will begin work on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony made the announcement while delivering his address at an event held on Saturday.

Dr Anthony highlighted that government will continue to incorporate innovative technologies to improve Guyana’s healthcare system.

“Later this month, we’ll start working with Mount Sinai to develop our electronic health records,” Minister Anthony stated.

The EMR system is an electronic record of health-related information of a patient. It can facilitate workflow and improve the quality of patient care and patient safety. 

Dr Anthony explained that, “EMR will be integrated records and this would help us so that across the system, any patient going to any part of the system would be able to access those records.” The health minister had previously revealed that the ministry is working on legislation so that patients’ privacy can be protected.

This legislation is expected to be passed in the National Assembly later this year.

Once this law is given parliamentary approval, the first phase of the EMR system will be rolled out.

“This is something that we are also working on to make sure that our records over the next three to four years would be totally electronic,” he had stated at a different event in Region Two.