Using IT Improving Healthcare in Brazil

Using IT  Improving Healthcare in Brazil

How IT will help in improving the halthcare aspects of people  , Can we think of such a technique :

Use Case Scenario

In the NHCP, patient treatment data is entered locally by health care providers, and later transferred and distributed to database servers organized in a hierarchy of levels -- municipal, regional, state, and federal -- reflecting the organization of the health system in Brazil, as shown in the diagram below:

NHCP Architecture

Patient ID information is contained on magnetic stripe health cards; care providers are equipped with a client application and terminals to capture the following information:

• Unique patient identification (who)
• Unique health provider information (treated by whom)
• Clinic/office/hospital information (where, when)
• Medical encounter information (what)

The client application guides the health care professional through the process of entering the essential data for the patient visit: reason, diagnosis, procedures performed, medication, and referral information. Brazil has national standardized codes for this data, and uses the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) recommended by the World Health Organization.

The client application uploads its stored information to the municipal server by dialing-up to the network at intervals (few health care providers have permanent network connections). If the municipal server is not available, the data is uploaded to a concentrator server, which acts as a backup. Once the data is transferred to the municipal server, the NHCP application handles and stores the data in a local database. Later, the NHCP application at the municipal server connects to the concentrator level and uploads a copy of the data from the municipal server. Then, the data collected by the health care providers reaches the permanent network and is later replicated to the upper levels of the municipal/concentrator/state/federal hierarchy.

The main role of the client application is entering information; however, the health care provider can also use the client application to query the system for information.

The main functional requirements of the NHCP infrastructure are:

1. receive and handle the data from the client application
2. distribute the data to the upper level servers (municipal, concentrator, state, federal)
3. distribute the data across the sites for synchronization and clearance purposes
4. provide the managers with patient care information and reports on each level

Usage of IT 

Advantages of Java and XML Technologies

One of the main goals of the NHCP was to avoid vendor lock-in or proprietary technology. Two technologies -- Java technology and the XML data format -- were chosen to achieve this goal. Also, the nature of the project called for multiple vendors and system integrators to implement the system, and it was necessary to ease integration without hampering the different implementations. XML, Java technology, and HTTP were used as the "glue" to bring these diverse implementations together relatively quickly.

• Java technology provides a wealth of tools and capabilities, it is an open standard supported by the JCP community process, and multiple companies supply Java technology.
• XML has emerged as a platform-independent standard for information exchange on the Internet, sometimes referred to as "portable data." XML over HTTP has become nearly ubiquitous. XML provides flexibility and extensibility for frequently changing specifications, and for adding new functionality and new message documents to the system.