The Jamaica Injury Surveillance System (JISS) and Patient Administration System (PAS) is cited by the CDC, and the JISS is capable of
e-tracking any disease/topic

Markham, Ontario, Canada - While there are indeed many implementations of health care computerization around the world, it is rare to have a particular one cited by the CDC [Centers for Disease Control], Atlanta, Georgia, USA, as one which "could also be a model for other developing and developed countries".

This is one of the many extremely positive comments attributed to the health care IT implementation undertaken by the Jamaica Ministry of Health (JMOH), starting in 1997, under the stewardship of Mrs. Marcia Gibson, Director of the Health Reform Unit. Recently an international team of 26 health sector experts in late 2002 exhaustively reviewed the implementation. The team included 6 experts on Epidemiology and Disease Control and Prevention from the CDC. The other 20 team experts were from the JMOH, user-site hospitals in Jamaica, Clemson University, SC, USA, The University Hospital of the West Indies, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

The computerized health care system under review in Jamaica is referred to as the JISS (Jamaica Injury Surveillance System) which is linked to the PAS (Patient Administration System), collectively known as the JISS/PAS. The review is contained in 8 articles (57 pages) that are presented in the international journal 'INJURY CONTROL and SAFETY PROMOTION' [Volume 9, No. 4, December 2002], published by Swets & Zeitlinger, Liesse, The Netherlands. Yvette Holder (visiting research fellow, CDC) wrote the Guest Editorial in the IC&SP journal. Ms. Holder recently noted that "the JISS/PAS is, to the best of my knowledge, the first, and probably still the only, fully computerized, wide-area networked national surveillance system in the western hemisphere."

The CDC team, and the other members of the review team, provided many important key insights into the operation of the JISS/PAS over the five-year period 1998 - 2002. The report included such statements as: "The pilot was so successful that the system was reproduced at other sites"; "The JISS provides data to support needed policy changes", The location data have been exported into a Geographical Information System (GIS), etc.

Dr. Elizabeth Ward, Director, Disease Prevention and Control, JMOH, is the co-author of 5 of the articles in IC&SP. In the articles it is noted that: "the JISS...has the flexibility to be coded locally for data collection (electronically) on any selected disease or topic." (Injury, HIV/AIDS, SARS, etc.) In Canada such disease surveillance is paper-based.

Heron Technology Corp, Markham, ON, Canada, developed the JISS/PAS application software suite. The PAS software is also deployed in Canadian hospitals, and meets the exacting reporting requirements of both the Provincial and Federal Governments. In summary, Jamaica has now implemented a computerized health sector management system that is indeed today a 'model' for other developing countries, and developed countries, meaning the world. The two most important issues that must be taken into account by any country planning to computerize its health care sector are: affordability and functionality. For more details please contact www.herontech.com.