A HIMSS ASIA PACIFIC EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE

June 2016

ConclusionBrunei and ASEAN members could learn from one other, as the push for Smart Cities gain momentum.

Brunei was one of the first countries to jump on the telemedicine bandwagon in the region.

Since its Jerudong Park Medical Centre (JPMC) established a Neuroscience Stroke and Rehabilitation Centre (NSRC) with the North-West Hospital (KHNW) in Frankfurt am Main, over 1,500 people have been treated as in NSRC whether as in-patients or out-patients between 2010 and 2012.

The NSRC in Brunei specializes in the care of acute stroke patients and also treats patients with acute neurological diseases such as meningitis.

Numerous patients and doctors have consulted overseas specialists through satellite technology, video conferencing and data transfer through phones and the Internet.

The telemedicine system impressed with a guaranteed latency time of no more than 30 minutes.

Bru-HIMS

This is an acronym for the Brunei Darussalam Healthcare Information and Management System, a nationwide e-Health initiative that gives healthcare professionals and consumers real-time access to patient records at the point of care.

Various systems such as Queue Management System, RFID Tagging, Laboratory Quality Control System, and MIMS Drug Information System are integrated into the larger healthcare system.

Over 5,000 healthcare professionals would be trained to use Bru-HIMS to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare services throughout the continuum of patient care.

Patient records will be stored in a single place and time saved from manual searches could be spent on more important tasks.

The oil-rich state provides free healthcare, with a token of one dollar per hospital/clinic visit, as part of its social contract with its people.

Free healthcare is a highly desirable public good. But where it is free, the tendency to take a little less care with one’s health may be possible.

Koo Jin Shen wrote in The Brunei Times, 7 November 2013, that “there is a perception that the public, in general, doesn’t take its own health seriously, and in a sense we see this being reflected in the rising number of cases in Non-Communicable diseases over the years”.

He quoted the Minister of Health who has said at a 2012 Legislative Council Session that a number of patients had been found to deviate from prescriptions given by their doctors and this behaviour could

lead to chronic/complex diseases or re-hospitalization.

The government had allocated $57 million for medicines for 2013-2014, increasing by a million from 2012. The budget has seemingly been increasing annually to cater to higher spending.

To promote self-self, a Malaysian health technology start-up announced early 2016 that it has obtained seed funding led by Prince Abdul Qawi, a nephew of the Bruneian Sultan to introduce BookDoc to Bruneians.

BookDoc is an app for people to search and book doctors. It allows employers to monitor their staff’s health and medical coverage, as well as manage their medical benefits.

As health initiatives pick up speed, so will Brunei’s advancement towards Smart Health.

Notes from Elsewhere in ASEANSingapore, a small ASEAN state like Brunei, has launched smart health

initiatives to encourage its people to manage their heath together.

An excerpt from PM Lee Hsien Loong’s speech transcript at the Smart Nation launch on 24 November 2015 reads: “We can connect to our

neighbours with apps, so that we can informally help one another. Like-minded neighbours can come together to pursue some common hobby like gardening or exercise together... HDB is piloting the Smart Elderly Monitoring and Alert System … which uses a combination of sensors so that if the system detects something out of the ordinary, … it can

raise the alarm and alert family members or neighbours.”

Telemedicine

IT BEGINS HERE...WITH:Wellness Management

Brunei’s SMART City Story