By Olga Rovenkova
A plastic rectangle, similar to a bank card, is to show the state of a person’s health — including each appointment with a doctor, complaints, prescriptions and results of tests. Information will even include digitised x-ray pictures, ultrasound investigations and magnetic resonance tomography. The compact e-card is designed to be easily connected to a USB port, providing full information on each citizen’s health from birth (protected by an e-code).
No doubt, this will reduce the amount of time spent by doctors on paperwork (currently up to a third of their working week completing medical forms by hand). Meanwhile, patients will have no need to worry about their paperwork being lost, since copying the digital version is simple. Policlinics will also benefit, being able to give more time to patients than to paperwork. Of course, hospital doctors will be able to take decisions on treatment more promptly, on receiving an urgent patient.
The pilot project is unique within the CIS, with Minskers being the first to be given ‘cards of health’. The National Academy of Sciences’ United Institute of Informatics Problems is to join Chinese Huawei in offering technical support. Digitised medical information is coming into play across the globe, with this new technology set to be activated countrywide if successful.
