The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat had witnessed, today, the launch of the first phase of the university hospital automation project in a hotel in Cairo.
In his remarks, Abdel Ghaffar underlined that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research bears a social responsibility for the health of citizens, represented in the university hospitals scattered in various governorates of the Republic to serve a wide segment of Egyptian citizens. He emphasized that university hospitals have proven efficiency and professionalism during the COVID-19 pandemic and contributed to treating the infected people nationwide through isolation hospitals and treatment protocols.
The Higher Education Minister indicated that the number of university hospitals is 115, which can shortly be increased. This is in addition to 650 hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health, which contribute to serving Egyptian citizens.
The Higher Education Minister pointed to the directives of the President of the Republic on the importance of digitizing all health services. Moreover, he stressed that linking university hospitals to hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health will contribute to following up and directing patients to the nearest hospital, thanks to the automated infrastructure.
Abdel Ghaffar pointed out that the project is aimed at operating the first phase of 79 university hospitals. He noted that this project outputs are a national goal that the Ministry of Higher Education has always sought to implement. He pointed to the importance of having a disease map nationwide, which would aid physicians responsible for treatment protocols with choosing the appropriate protocol according to the medical history of patients.
For his part, the ICT Minister stressed the importance of the project, as it represents a great significance for citizens who receive health care in Egypt. The project aims to automate the health care process and create an integrated medical record for each citizen, through which citizens can receive health care from all university hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education.
Moreover, the government plans to link the medical record with the health insurance project implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP). Then, each Egyptian citizen will have one health record through which citizens can receive health services and care from any close hospital or any hospital they are directed to by the treating physician. Thus, all hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research will be integrated and interconnected.
The ICT Minister pointed out that the unified health record will contribute to achieving a paradigm shift in the quality and facilitation of health services for citizens. This is in addition to rationalizing expenditures and improving the mechanisms of managing the health care process to provide an outstanding service at the lowest cost to citizens.
Talaat added that the project includes the process of managing the health system inside hospitals with all management activities, from procurement, organizing and distributing schedules of physicians, and linking all hospital departments to the referral system from one department to another and from a general practitioner to specialists, according to the patient’s needs. This is in addition to providing data and statistics that will contribute to the practical research process, and aid researchers to obtain the data required for their scientific research while protecting the privacy of citizens’ data.
The ICT Minister referred to the multiple areas of cooperation between MCIT and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, as part of the efforts exerted to build an integrated digital society. A few months ago, the first phase of the automated exams project in the medical sector was completed in all national universities. Currently, the second phase of the project is underway. These efforts include joint cooperation in CREATIVA Innovation Hubs, implemented by MCIT within universities, in addition to opening Egypt University of Informatics (EUI).
For his part, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of University Hospitals Hossam Abdel Ghaffar indicated that the university hospital automation system project has been divided into two phases. The first phase included the automation and development of 79 comprehensive hospitals affiliated with 11 universities. This is in addition to five hospitals affiliated with Al-Azhar University, with a capacity of 20,000 beds to annually serve ten million patients. He added that the second phase includes the automation of nine universities, with a total of 64 hospitals with a capacity of 20,000 beds to serve 8,500,000 patients.
Moreover, Abdel Ghaffar underlined the support of the political leadership and the Egyptian government for the university hospital automation project for the benefit of Egyptian citizens.
The Vice Chairman and Managing Director at El Delta Electronic Systems Hazem Mohamed Saafan pointed to the importance of partnering with the Supreme Council of University Hospitals and Vodafone Egypt to provide high-quality services to university hospitals that annually serve millions of patients. He emphasized that these services will be activated as soon as possible to raise the efficiency of the health care provided to citizens and increase the number of beneficiaries of university hospitals.
For his part, CEO of Vodafone Egypt Mohamed AbdAllah expressed his pleasure to participate in the digitization of medical services in university hospitals. This is in addition to contributing to the development of the services provided to citizens nationwide. He noted that Vodafone Egypt is a partner to many government authorities and bodies in important projects. The company provides several technological solutions and digital services, most notably its participation in the automation project of the universal health insurance system.
On the sidelines of launching the first phase of the university hospital automation project, the Higher Education and ICT Ministers witnessed the ceremony of exchanging the partnership contract among the Supreme Council of University Hospitals, Vodafone Egypt, and El Delta Electronic Systems to implement the digital transformation system and automate university hospitals nationwide.
The ceremony was attended by the Deputy ICT Minister for Infrastructure Raafat Hindy, the Advisor to the ICT Minister for Technological Talents Hoda Baraka, the President of Ain Shams University Mahmoud El-Meteini, the Assistant Minister of Higher Education for Digital Transformation Hesham Farouk, the Assistant Minister of Higher Education for Finance and Investment Mohamed Elsharkawy, the project managers at each hospital, many heads of Ministry of Health-affiliated hospitals , and representatives of the executing company (Vodafone Egypt).
