BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – The Ministry of Health (MoH) is set to embark on a comprehensive upgrade of its Health Information Management System (Bru-HIMS) as part of efforts to improve patient care and streamline workflows for medical professionals.
During the 18-month overhaul, the organisation of patient data will be revamped, ensuring electronic medical records will be accessible by both government-run and private healthcare facilities.
Since Bru-HIMS was introduced in 2012, the 750,000 patient records stored in the system have only been available to government-run hospitals and healthcare centres, but the new upgrade aims to consolidate medical information to align with MoH’s “One Patient, One Record” motto.
MoH said Bru-HIMS 2.0 will see closer integration with the BruHealth app, allowing patients to book appointments, register and pay for services online.
Among the planned improvements, Bru-HIMS 2.0 will standardise workflows for healthcare professionals, allowing them to pull up patient records, add examination notes and prescribe medication within a single user interface.
During ward or off-site visits, doctors and nurses will be able to pull up patient data on the spot, and patients will also be able to access their own medical records via the BruHealth app.
One of the key improvements is a feature called “Enhanced Clinical Decision Support”, which provides doctors with clinical treatment suggestions, patient safety alerts and medicines inventory in real-time.
The health minister previously said that incorporating Intelligent Care Plans and a Clinical Pathway Recommendation system into Bru-HIMS would assist doctors in evaluating health risks, anticipating diagnoses, develop customised care plans, as well as collect structured data to help inform healthcare policy.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health signed a contract with Dynamik Technologies to begin the upgrade process, which is slated for completion in April 2025.