By NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK

The National Heart Institute (IJN) will be implementing the electronic medical record (EMR) system, a systemised collection of patient’s electronically-stored health information, by next year.

CEO Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Azhari Yakub said the heart surgery centre is assessing three shortlisted companies to be the EMR provider.

“We hope we can begin integrating EMR in our system by the end of the year, and have the first phase ready by next year,” he said at the IJN-BP Healthcare Group memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony last Friday.

BP Healthcare’s subsidiary, Ali Health Sdn Bhd, and IJN inked the MoU for mobile application, Doctor2U, to launch the online result viewing for radiology reports and images.

The first phase of the project is expected to be launched on Aug 1, while the second phase — whereby patients can view their blood laboratory results — is targeted for release in November.

Dr Mohd Azhari said IJN wants to transform its services with technological advancements.

“We hope in the future, more technology transformation can be made to our services; for example, we can have a Lab2U system where IJN can do a mobile blooddrawing test and deliver the medication to patients’ doorstep,” he said.

Doctor2U CEO Garvy Beh said the new function is expected to increase a clinician’s workflow efficiency by channelling repetitive tasks and feedback loops through computerised systems.

“No more print ing of radiology reports and pathology results or burning them on CDs, no more calls from patients inquiring about their results and no more opportunity for human errors,” he said.

The additional feature in mobile application by Ali Health is expected to allow patients to view, compare and share their results, and reduce printing and phone calls.

Beh added that Doctor2U will be launching a period and pregnancy tracker feature in the mobile app within the next two to three months. The application was first released in October 2015, with a feature that allows patients to call doctors for a home visit.