One of the winning projects of the call for proposals for the implementation of IS4H projects promoted by the Pan American Health Organization wants to endow the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador with the knowledge and technical capacity necessary for the development and implementation of electronic clinical documents (HL7 , CDA, FHIR) that allow the technical integration of the information subsystems, in accordance with objective 6 of the Agenda for Sustainable Health of the Americas 2018-2030 (ASSA) and within the framework of the roadmap of IS4H 2018- 2022.
One of the most important results of the project will be to empower civil society, academia, and public and private institutions through the establishment of a National Network of Information Systems for Health.
The project of the Ministry of Public Health will strengthen the use of interoperability standards in health in the National Health System of Ecuador through training that includes both MSP and other related entities. This training will allow the use of interoperability standards to be institutionalized and will lead to the fulfillment of Ministerial Agreement MSP 009-2013 using HL7.
One of the most important results of the project will be to empower civil society, academia, and public and private institutions through the establishment of a National Network of Information Systems for Health. This begins with the realization of a National Day of Information Systems for Health made with representatives of the different parties involved, with the purpose of knowing and socializing the state of the art in the country and guiding the national strategy of digital health towards the strengthening of public health through information and communication technologies (ICT).
The project will also serve to extend and transmit the knowledge and experiences acquired through of the development of an institutional MOOC course on interoperability standards made with the purpose of diffusing the use of interoperability standards in health and its application through the Electronic Precription Implementation Guide, and a roadmap for the development of other guides.
The Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador says that it is a primary duty of the State to guarantee without any discrimination the effective enjoyment of the rights established in it, and in international instruments, in particular health. Said constitution establishes that health is a right guaranteed by the State, through economic, social, cultural, educational and environmental policies; and permanent, timely and without exclusion access to programs, actions and services for the promotion and integral attention of health, sexual health and reproductive health. The provision of health services will be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, interculturality, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, precaution and bioethics, with a gender and generational approach. For this, the Comprehensive Health Care Model (MAIS) is available.
Ministerial Agreements 1190-2012 and 0009-2017 of the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador (MSP) published in the official register support the use of the Health Level Seven (HL7) standards for implementation in all institutions of the National Health System, the management of the electronic medical record and the establishment of the Technical Board to manage the projects related to the systems that generate digital information, which constitute the legal framework for the sustainability of the strengthening of the information system for health.
In the last 2 years, the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador has made a quantitative leap in the development of Information Systems for Health. Currently it is considered necessary to strengthen the tools in use and design others through the adoption of interoperability standards in health that encompass the dimensions of interoperability (legal, normative, semantic and technical) at the national level; and, on the other hand, strengthen the process to ensure in the medium and long term the capacity of the National Health Authority to record, capture, store, consolidate and process information generated by the other actors of the Public and Complementary Network, with a view to the consolidation of the National Electronic Clinical History.
It is worth mentioning that the Electronic Clinical History System of the MSP is a reality that is implemented in more than 1500 operating units, and has more than 3.5 million patients. This project also seeks to strengthen this tool.