Goroka hospital goes online in a first for PNG!
01 October 2008
Goroka General Hospital has taken a giant step forward into the
e-health revolution by being the first hospital in the country to
set up a website, with expertise from AVI volunteer Robert Schilt.
Read the article from The National newspaper.
The Goroka hospital website is agiant step forward into the
information age. MALUM NALU writes.
GOROKA General Hospital has taken a giant step forward into the
information age and e-health revolution by being the first hospital
in the country to set up a website.
The website http://www.ggh.org.pg/ was set up recently by
the hospital's volunteer IT manager Robert Schilt.
"Goroka General Hospital is committed to embracing Information
Technology (IT) as part of its overall strategic direction, which
is to enhance and improve the delivery of effective Health Services
to people of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea,"
said a proud hospital CEO Dr Joseph Apa.
In addition to the commissioning of this website, the hospital
has already implemented several other IT-related projects over the
past 18 months under Schilt, which include:
- Establishment up of a Business Resource Center (BRC) that has a
state-of-the art IT training facility with 12 PCs, where regular
computer training is conducted and offered to hospital
staff.
- Deployment of approximately 50 PCs and laptops to various
hospital departments.
- Availability of Internet services such as the World Wide Web
and email to staff through the Business Resources Center including
access to the HINARI Online Subscription.
- Development and programming of several hospital information
systems (HIS) including laboratory results application, medical
stores application, attendance register and various statistical
reporting tools to assist departments with their reporting
requirements.
- Development of a hospital Intranet which is now almost
complete. The Intranet is an online resource that will only be made
available to hospital staff; and will make information such as
staff telephone directories, standard forms and other internal
resources easily accessible. It is envisaged that all future
hospital information systems and applications will be deployed
through the hospital's Intranet.
"We are also very excited to announce that all of the software
and systems deployed at the hospital have been done using an Open
Source Software (OSS) framework," Dr Apa said.
"This approach has saved the hospital the high costs associated
with the licensing of proprietary software systems such as
Microsoft.
"This website will continue to evolve and we already have
planned to launch the following web services in the near
future:
- An online forum for PNG doctors to discuss and share relevant
clinical information.
- A member's section which will give registered users access to
additional information.
- Hospital news items.
- Links to useful health resources.
- Other features.
"So stay tuned and in the meantime, if you need to contact the
Hospital, you may do so by sending an email to info@ggh.org.pg."
Schilt said both Internet access and access to the HINARI
service was a first for hospital staff in Papua New Guinea.
"The Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI)
provides free or very low cost online access to the major journals
in medical and related social sciences to local, not-for-profit
institutions in developing countries," he explained.
"HINARI was launched in January 2002, with some 1500 journals
from six major publishers: Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the
Harcourt Worldwide STM Group, Wolters Kluwer International Health
& Science, Springer Verlag and John Wiley, following the
principles in a Statement of Intent signed in July 2001.
"Twenty-two additional publishers joined in May 2002, bringing
the total number of journals to over 2000.
"Since that time, the numbers of participating publishers and of
journals and other full-text resources has grown continuously.
"Today more than 70 publishers are offering their content in
HINARI and others will soon be joining the programme.
"An evaluation is in progress which will determine the long term
future of HINARI."
For those familiar with website design the original site was
developed with an Open Source application called Joomla.
This new and revamped website has been put together for Goroka
General Hospital using Wordpress.
"Some folks would like to think of Wordpress as solely a
platform for writing blogs but as I'm learning it is far more
powerful than that," Schilt said.
"Due to its structure, available functionality and Content
Management System (CMS) abilities it can easily be used to create
fully fledged websites.
"I will shortly add Forum functionality using an add-on product
called 'bbPress'.
"The Forum will be made available to Health professionals with
access to the Internet in Papua New Guinea to share ideas and
resources and will naturally be called the 'PNG Health Forum'.
"The new website is still lacking a lot of content but
hopefully, with time and quality contributions from hospital
management and staff, we will see it become a valuable online
resource for the health professionals in the Highlands region and
also the rest of PNG."
Access to health services is a right and not a privilege for the
432,972 people of the Eastern Highlands province.
For the past 38 years, both national and provincial governments
have been achieving this through the provision of stable and
essential health services to our people.
As a result, the provincial life expectancy has increased from
53.6 years in 1990 to the current 56.1 years, which is higher than
the current national average.
Goroka General Hospital is located in the picturesque Eastern
Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. The hospital provides
specialist health services to the entire Highlands region.
The website http://www.ggh.org.pg/ is a giant step for the
health system in Papua New Guinea.
Story and image courtesy of: http://www.thenational.com.pg/092908/wkender4.php