This month we are featuring our Sri Lanka – Connected Health Alliance Ecosystem as our Ecosystem of the Month. Adriana Díaz, Communities Manager, says: “The Sri Lanka Connected Health Alliance Ecosystem is an expert and the go-to ecosystem strengthened by the medical speciality of Health Informatics. Successful implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in the hospitals across the country can be considered as the leading factor in the Sri Lankan ecosystem. These are backed by well-established policies and guidelines.”
What is the approximate stakeholder breakdown of your ecosystem?
Sri Lanka Connected Health Alliance (SLCHA) was launched on 17 October 2019. SLCHA is centred around the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL) which is the first organisation to promote digital health in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Connected Health Alliance Ecosystem consists of:
- Professional Bodies related to digital health
- Government institutes/agencies related to coordination of digital health activity
- Institutes related to regulation of health sector
- Educational partners related to human resource capacity building on digital health
- Private sector organizations actively involved in digital health
Who are the top 3 champions from your ecosystem?
There are many champions in our Sri Lankan ecosystem which drive the country for the digital health transformation and they work in close collaboration with the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka, which is the main backbone for the SLCHA.
The main three champions, whose activity affects the whole national digital health ecosystem are :
- Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo
- Sri Lanka College of Health Informatics
What EU funding/collaboration are you involved with, or you would like to be part of?
We are currently partners in the EU Project Gravitate Health, which empowers and equips Europeans with health information for active personal health management and adherence to treatment.
We would like be to be part of other EU programmes and programmes related to capacity building on digital health.
What are the key priorities and themes for your ecosystem?
The SLCHA ecosystem aims to:
- Bring together a community of stakeholders
- Find common solutions to challenges in healthcare
- Break down silos and improve collaboration
- Foster innovation
What is your primary strength as an ecosystem?
The primary strength that leads our digital health activities is the availability of Health Informaticians as a medical speciality in Sri Lanka.
Who are your clinical champions either hospital, clinicians, specialities?
The Sri Lanka College of Health Informatics is the professional body consisting of Medical Specialists in Digital Health (Health Informaticians) that drives the digital transformation in clinical as well as preventive health sector in the country.
Other clinical champions are the digital health teams who are managing the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) systems in the hospitals island-wide. Hospital Health Information Management system (HHIMS) and Hospital Information Management system (HIMS) are the main EMRs functional in the country. The following image shows the distribution of those hospitals with EMRs. About 85 Hospitals have been covered by mid 2023:
