'Hiras' system to make analysis of health data easy

Dubai: Healthcare City has unveiled the results of a consulting study at Arab Health 2009, which addresses the feasibility of utilising its reporting system dubbed "Hiras", within the Ministry of Health.

The "Healthcare Information Reporting and Analysis System [Hiras]" is an innovative scheme that has the ability to perform advanced healthcare data analysis, collect and measure quality indicators and support healthcare research.

The Dubai Healthcare City has been applying Hiras for more than two years, successfully connecting over 60 clinics to the system.

The findings of the four-month consulting study have confirmed that Hiras meets a substantial number of requirements outlined by the health ministry in developing its new 'Statistical Centre'.

Furthermore, the consulting study has highlighted the need to consolidate health data on a UAE or federal level and develop regulations to support data collection and reporting for the whole country.

It has also established that the implementation of information technology is essential to manage data quality and integrity, ensuring effective use of patient information in decision making; and reinforced that policies need to be developed and implemented to ensure patient confidentiality.

Dr Aisha Abdullah, Senior Vice-President of Dubai Healthcare City, said: "Since 2006, the Hiras system has been implemented as a centralised clinical data warehouse, to capture and store required patient data for healthcare professionals.

The scheme is used to receive, store, measure, analyse, and provide reports on a number of clinical quality and performance indicators."

Dr Ali Bin Shakar, Director General of Ministry of Health, said: "The new Statistical Centre will serve as the "data gathering and reporting authority. The study has proved Hiras' potential applicability at the new centre."