The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched Public Health Management, a new system that aims to centralise various data in order to help improve disease prevention, as well as manage public health projects, and promote the involvement of communities in health programmes with both the public and private sector.

The Public Health Management system will reportedly equip public health specialists with the right tools to monitor and manage initiatives and activities. It will also alert specialists to any evolving requirements, MoHAP confirmed.

In terms of disease prevention, the platform will continuously monitor and report on data pertaining to any contagious disease.

WHY IT MATTERS

Having a centralised database of this kind will reportedly help health service providers access important information to “help improve the health outcomes and rationalise healthcare spending.”

Developed with local telecoms giant, Etisalat and the healthcare IT company, Health Matrix, the system is one more contribution “towards digital transformation and utilisation of artificial intelligence to achieve highly efficient preventive healthcare services and enhance the quality of their outputs,” in the country, said the ministry.

ON THE RECORD

“The Public Health Management system is part of the ministry’s strategy to enhance community health and healthy behaviours; improve the interaction between patients and health practitioners to be aware of their disease, and how to deal with it; and improve the proactively remote patient follow-up,” said Hussein Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Undersecretary of the ministry’s Health Centres and Clinics Sector. “[The system will] help limit the spread of diseases, reduce personal and governmental treatment spending, improve the national health indicators, and strengthen the preventive health system to confront health risks and epidemics via innovative digital solutions.”

“COVID-19 pandemic challenges have shown the urgent need for critical digital infrastructure to enhance the response of health systems and societies and provide better, faster, and smarter digital healthcare. This system will support healthcare professionals with all the tools needed to help improve prevention and management of public health issues,” he added.