by Ifham Nizam
COLOMBO (The Island/ANN) - Health Minister announces plan to introduce an E-Health Card which would allow any Sri Lankan to obtain treatment at any hospital irrespective of costs.
The government would soon go all out to introduce an E-Health Card to all Sri Lankans with which anybody can obtain treatment in any hospital irrespective of the costs, said Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne on Wednesday night.
He invited two world renowned health industry giants to also introduce telemedicine in Sri Lanka at an event held at the Galle Face Hotel.
Minister told the top management of REDtone MEX Sdn Bhd - a subsidiary of Berjaya Corporation, Malaysia and Hinacom Software & Technology, China, an industry leader in Medical imaging and Telemedicine, to introduce cutting edge Artificial lntelligence based technology here.
In keeping with Sri Lanka’s vision of revolutionizing healthcare technology in the country, the Ministry of Health partnered with the global experts in Medical imaging and Telemedicine, to introduce cutting edge, Artificial lntelligence based technology to 20 main government hospitals countrywide in the first phase.
Dr. Senaratne said that they made history in medical imaging in Sri Lanka by bringing the vast benefits of teleradiology to the public health sector.
In the first phase of the revolutionary project, the partnership of global and local experts would establish a Teleradiology Command Centre at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) providing facilities completely free of charge, the Minister said.
Dr. Senaratne noted that the Command Centre would be linked to hospitals around Sri Lanka. The local healthcare industry had been coping with various challenges, including medical care delivery turnaround time, rapid changes and adoption of expensive diagnostic technology, large digital storage needs and rising costs, he said.
The Health Minister said that by utilising the innovative Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) and Radiology lnformation System (RlS) digital platforms, the Centre would facilitate enhanced medical imaging services, increased efficiency as well as bringing considerable cost savings to the public health network in Sri Lanka.
