The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) and the Emirates Health Services (EHS) highlighted the latest updates of the digital patient portal "Shefaa" at Arab Health 2021, which takes place in Dubai from 21-24 June.
Shefaa platform works as a digital communication channel between patients and service provides and is considered the main reference for access to medical and clinical information and the patients' medical record.
Shefaa is an upgraded version of the previous patient portal and is designed to serve the largest segment of patients of all age groups by featuring treatment services provided by the ministry and the EHS.
Nurtured by all user-centric information, Shefaa is also connected to the “Wareed” system that covers all MoHAP’s and EHS's centers and hospitals under a single network.
Through the “Shefaa” platform, users can complete their registration using the ‘UAE pass’ to get smart treatment services and notifications on the updates of the patient's file. The platform also offers health education and guidance, questionnaires and opinion polls, E-payment, vital signs, live chat, lab test reports, and results.
In addition, the system includes a special service for senior citizens via the elderly home care program, which was upgraded to include submission of the application, document attachment, selection of the date of the initial visit to the medical team, application follow-up, and checking out the scheduled visits of the home care team.
Developing health information systems
HE Dr. Youssef Mohamed Al Serkal, Director-General of the Emirates Health Services, said: “Shefaa platform comes as part of the UAE government's directions to develop public services and achieve high quality for community members in accordance with the UAE Vision. It also falls within MoHAP’s and EHS's efforts to provide comprehensive and integrated healthcare services and implement the smart government initiative, by developing health information systems and carrying out world-class standards in managing the infrastructure of health facilities, in line with the goals of the National Agenda to implement a health system based on the highest international standards.”
Three smart services
Ali Al-Ajmi, Director of Digital Health, MoHAP, said: "The new tech-based platform “Shefaa ” aims to provide treatment services and enhance access to the medical record, including ‘vital signs, prescriptions, and vaccines, medical history, medications, allergies, doctors' visits record, lab test results, and reports.”
Al-Ajmi emphasized that all the services are provided in accordance with the best standards of accuracy and transparency while ensuring the highest levels of data confidentiality.
Shefaa platform has an innovative and user-friendly interface consistent with the standards of user experience and the best quality standards of government services to streamline access to health services and follow-up of all information in the medical record. The future updates will include new treatment services and features in line with the directives of the wise government to ensure the continuity of work.
AI-based data analysis
Al-Ajmi noted that the platform has witnessed a new update by connecting patient’s medical records to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and wearable devices.
This enables patients to link their home medical gadgets to their health records via health monitoring sensors. The newly introduced technology supports a massive number of health applications and medical devices such as blood pressure and diabetes devices, heart rate, SpO2, temperature, physical activity, and other vital signs.
The data of these gadgets are stored in patient’s medical records to provide a comprehensive, safe, and reliable database. Physicians have access to patient's medical records in order to monitor their patients at home. Shefaa also allows for storage of the previous readings that can be shown via a chart to help doctors keep up with the updates of patient's medical history.
Al-Ajmi added: “Soon we will be able to run AI software program that can analyze data and generate models for healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. With this, we can predict chronic diseases and lifestyle diseases and receive early warnings that allow the doctor to take timely and appropriate action."
Al-Ajmi shed light on the outstanding achievement made by Shefaa Platform after winning at the World Information Organization.