Electronic health records, telemedicine sites to boost health sector – Minister

Expanding on the telehealth infrastructure in Guyana, the Health Ministry is looking to establish four more telemedicine sites in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) in the coming weeks and will soon start implementing an electronic health record system across the country.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony made this disclosure on Friday during the launch of the National Expansion of the HEARTS Initiative for the Management of Cardiovascular Diseases.
“By the end of June, we’ll have 20 [telemedicine] sites in remote communities. We’ve just established four sites in Region One (Barima-Waini) and built three sites in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni). We’re going to put, in another week or so, another four sites in Region Seven,” Dr Anthony said.
These telemedicine sites aim to bridge the gap between the hinterland and the coastland by allowing medical personnel in the hinterland to get real-time assistance from those working in Georgetown.
In addition to a computer connected to the internet via satellite technology, these sites will include a digital stethoscope, a pulse oximeter, an infrared thermometer, a blood pressure monitor, mobile ultrasonography, exam cameras and other equipment.
“With the help of a community health worker in a very remote community, we will be able to monitor our patients in a more effective way,” Dr Anthony said.
The Health Minister clarified that this system allows medical personnel in Georgetown to perform a host of activities including remotely listening to a patient’s heartbeat or completing an electrocardiogram (ECG) or an ultrasound.
“[Patients] can stay in their village 500 miles away and a doctor from Georgetown–or one of the regional hospitals–can be talking to them,” Anthony added.
The National Telemedicine Programme, a pilot project, was officially launched in December 2022 in Masakenari “Gunns Village” in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).

Electronic health records
In addition to increasing the prevalence of telemedicine sites across the country, the Health Ministry is also making efforts to digitalise the patients’ record system.
“We have just completed the law that is going to go to Parliament that talks about data, confidentiality and privacy of data,” Dr Anthony said.
“It’s a very comprehensive piece of legislation but that would lay the legal foundation of the electronic health record system,” he said.
Anthony added that close to US$9 million is being invested to move this system forward, with a recent arrangement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) lending to the funding of the first phase of the project.
“Once we start putting that in place, what that will ultimately result in is that any patient coming into the public sector would have one record. You’ll have one unique identifier,” Anthony said.
“And you can go in any part of the system, whether that’s in Charity or Skeldon or Lethem, and once you present your unique identifier, we will be able to pull up your record in any part of the system,” the Minister explained.
While the Minister noted that it will likely take a few years for this system to be fully realised, when it does come on stream, it will help to better quantify how many patients experience specific conditions.