The Ministry of Health (MoH) is working on an integrated electronic system to monitor infectious diseases and control epidemics in the Kingdom. “The national monitoring program will help health authorities to keep an eye on infectious diseases as and when they are reported from any part of the Kingdom and help detect epidemics,” Dr. Khalid Al-Marghalani, MoH spokesman, said in a statement to the Saudi Gazette, Sunday. The program, which is part of a scheme to promote the preventive health medicine, will also cover immunization of citizens and residents as well as the storage of vaccines and registering the follow-up date, he said. The program will be implemented in phases, beginning from the Makkah region. It will cover all the regions in three years from the start of its implementation. MoH will implement the e-system in coordination with the General Administration of Laboratories, Blood Banks and General Directorate of Health Affairs in Makkah region for automated monitoring of diseases and epidemics. Al-Marghalani said the MoH Executive Board in a meeting Saturday chaired by Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, approved the draft for this integrated e-system. The meeting also approved the rules and regulations governing the work of medical practitioners. Al-Marghalani said the ministry is keen to maintain high standards through the activation of quality programs. The Ministry of Health (MoH) has also completed the first phase of a cutting-edge information technology system, known as Cloud Computing, which is a boost for its e-health program and the country's e-governance ambitions. The cloud computing system's new servers will allow staff access to MoH files from anywhere and from any device. It is expected to reduce workloads and improve services considerably at the ministry's hospitals and primary healthcare centers. The MoH becomes the first government agency in the Kingdom to introduce applications for e-governance approved by the United Nations. The UN has 102 standards used to measure the progress of nations. Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, inaugurated the new portal in June 2011. Dr. Mohammed Al-Yameni, Advisor to the Minister of Health and General Supervisor of Information Technology and Communications (ITC), said the MoH is the first government body to introduce these e-government applications. He said the project provides infrastructure services which will enable MoH workers to provide high-quality services both quickly and efficiently. The next advanced phase of the project includes providing platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software as-a-service (SaaS), he added. Al-Yameni said that the launch of this phase of the service will give the ministry the ability to double the number of servers, increase virtual speed and ensure a high degree of flexibility. There will be 96 actual servers, and more than 1,400 servers used for virtualization techniques, which will allow multiple users to access one service, he said. He said the MoH has linked 105 hospitals in 20 health affairs directorates, including specialized heart and kidney facilities. __
