MS:  Yes, there are healthcare plans at the Health Ministry but the information is shared in precarious ways. The most famous of these are the Remediar (Reparation) or Nacer (Birth) plans but there are a lot of programs; more than twenty. Some never saw the light of day because they didn’t have the chance to be computerized, such as the Department of Mental Health. This department is obliged by law to implement a center every two years for patients housed in neuropsychiatric wards but it has never had the necessary technology or support to equip such a center. Now, however, it will start to work with SISA. There are several cases like this in which the computerization has been carried out precariously, which need to be improved, where major gaps still need to be filled such as: vectors, community medical programs, several different billing models, maternity, infants and oncology.

EHRLA: Where does one start with so much still to do?

MS: The most important aspect is to consolidate the citizen’s record. The citizen’s record is an instrument in which a significant number of nominal records will be concentrated. We need to consolidate and develop it, analyze the information and define how it will be shared. The twenty records that today are kept separately, with different levels of implementation, will function from the citizen’s record.

EHRLA: The issue of sharing this information is pretty sensitive, isn’t it?

MS: Of course. That’s why the national and provincial political authorities need to issue good regulations. All the records contain sensitive information about people. How can we share it? Not everyone can see everything but the method for sharing the information needs to be regulated. And that’s more political than technical.

EHRLA: How do you go about getting the necessary political direction? 

MS:  I interact with the national political authorities, but we need to have involvement from people who can take decisions in every sphere. Sometimes a difficulty arises in that authorities want to see more results than we have available to finish evaluating and consolidating the strategy politically. It might be necessary to make a little more progress with the individual results for each record and when we have a few, maybe four or five nominal records working well, then we’ll be able to sit down and discuss the right political approach to take. Our work with the implementation of nominal records isn’t quite mature enough.

EHRLA: How will establishments and professionals in the provinces be trained to use these records?

MS: We have created a training format that can be implemented in person or remotely. There are two basic instruments: an online training guide for SISA users focused on the practical ways in which one learns to use each of the modules. The other tool is the training environment, which is a fictional replica of SISA that can be used for practice. We make these two resources available and when we go to the establishments to give a course in person we also leave printed material – which can also be downloaded as a pdf – that all those attending can use to replicate the course in their provinces if they so choose.  

EHRLA: To sum up, what needs is SISA designed to resolve?