SLT and HISSL jointly hold “Digital Health: From possibility to reality” program

From left: Senior journalist Feizal Samath, Professor Vajira Dissanayake, Dr. Buddika Dayaratne, Dr. Nishan Siriwardena, Dr. Pamod Amarakoon, Kasun Karunaratne of Creative Software and Irshad Deen of SLT

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), together with the Health Information Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL), successfully presented a knowledge sharing program themed, “Digital Health: From possibility to reality” at Jetwing Colombo Seven recently. This was a great opportunity to hear from and network with key figures driving Sri Lanka’s digital health roadmap. The program was held successfully with the participation of a large number of tech savvy medical professionals, ICT experts, software developers, venders as well as health industry-related stakeholders in Sri Lanka.

The keynote speaker of the program was Professor Vajira H. W. Dissanayake, who spoke on the topic of “The Digital Health Ecosystem of Sri Lanka”, while several doctors who work as team leaders of digital health projects also shared their insights and first-hand experiences at this forum, through their presentations and the panel discussion that followed. 

The panellists comprised of Ministry of Health Health Informatician and Hospital Information Systems Project Team Leader Dr. Nishan Siriwardena; Ministry of Health Health Informatician and District Nutrition Monitoring System Team Leader Dr. Pamod Amarakoon; Ministry of Health Health Informatician Dr. Buddika Dayaratne, and SLT General Manager (Enterprise Products & Solutions) Irshad Deen. They shared their unique experiences and knowledge gained through their projects, on the topics “Hospital Information System (HISL)”, “Monitoring Children in the Community Using Smart Phones”, “Gathering Country Wide Data on the Incidence of Data Electronically” and “Partnering the Digital Transformation of Sri Lanka”, respectively. The moderator was veteran journalist, editor and foreign correspondent Feizal Samath. 

During the forum, keynote speaker Professor Vajira H. W. Dissanayake, addressing the gathering, said: “The developments in the digital landscape has opened the way for amazing new possibilities in the healthcare industry, with regards to treatments, powerful diagnostics, and opportunities to share the rapidly growing wealth of knowledge. Undoubtedly, healthcare has become more effective; however, on the other hand, it has also become more complex and costly. It has always been challenging for us to find the right balance at this stage, between implementing new systems and delivering efficient and cost-effective services to beneficiaries. If we are to ensure that healthcare remains affordable and widely available for future generations, we need to rethink radically how we provide and manage it. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to transform and implement a world class healthcare system in our country. For that we need the support of all the top level Sri Lankan ICT and software companies and developers, to design the best ever solution for Sri Lanka, whilst also providing state-of-the-art solutions to corporates and governments of other countries. We need to understand that a well-connected healthcare system can provide access to life-saving treatment to more people, particularly in rural areas. However we must be happy, that in Sri Lanka today, connected healthcare is slowly becoming a reality.”

Creative Technology Solutions Ltd. (Creative Software), one of the pioneers and leaders in Sri Lanka’s software industry; Federation of Information Technology Sri Lanka (FITIS), the apex body of the ICT sector in the country, covering all major industry segments such as hardware, software, training & education, communication and professional; and e-Channelling PLC, the pioneer software development and ICT service provider to the healthcare industry in Sri Lanka, provided their partnership and support to the event as industry partners, while the Sunday Times newspaper provided support in the role of print media partner to this worthy endeavour.

Digital transformation is a key driver of sweeping change in the modern world. The digital market including the digital health industry is developing into a global digital economy. Digitalisation has the potential to improve the quality of life and move towards greater societal good. The telecommunication industry is at the heart of global digitalisation as a key enabler by providing the essential connectivity infrastructure for functioning in the digital economy.