Izah Azahari
New features, such as Online Personal Health Records, Online Visit Appointment and Online Consultation, will be added to the BruHealth app to improve health management among members of the public.
This was said by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah during yesterday’s press conference, adding that these additions will allow the government to acquire the necessary data in assisting the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other stakeholders to have a more complete picture of the health status of citizens and residents of the country.
The minister said these features will also assist in predicting infection rates, provide medical resource mapping for more effective planning, especially in the provision of healthcare infrastructure, and help to draft better public health policies.
He also attributed the success of the expansion of the app to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), MoH and Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications as well as IT Protective Security Services Sdn Bhd (ITPSS), Dynamik Technologies Sdn Bhd, Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN) and EVYD Technology.
“The strong support from both government and private agencies reflects the unity and consensus of all in addressing the challenges, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the minister.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar added that the new features on the app will be particularly helpful in finding out one’s personal health history, such as disease diagnoses, laboratory tests undertaken, visits to hospital and clinics, and medical prescriptions received.
“So if a person goes to a clinic or hospital in this country, the information will not be lost or misinterpreted,” he said. “It’s truly in the hands of the user as the information is under his or her control via the BruHealth app.”
The minister added that users will also be able to make a doctor’s appointment and seek consultation without setting foot in hospital or clinic, as well as make payment online.
While an Online Visit Appointment feature will be available to all users, the minister said it’s not the only way to receive medical help. “For example,” he said, “if there are 20 slots available in the morning, maybe 10 will be reserved for Online Visit Appointment and the rest for walk-ins because we understand that there are people who will find it difficult to make an appointment online.”
The one-month trial run for the new features will begin at the health centre in Sengkurong in the coming week, said the minister.
Afterwards, he added, the trial will be expanded to the rest of the public hospitals and clinics in phases to smooth out the kinks that may arise before extending it to private clinics.
“From then onwards, whatever information received will be fed through the artificial intelligence behind the application to improve the quality of healthcare in the country,” the minister said. “We are going for value-based healthcare and further reducing the risks of chronic diseases with data obtained through the BruHealth app.”
Since its inception on May 14, the app has drawn a total of 436,047 registrations. It serves as epidemic response and population engagement platforms to assist the MoH in carrying out contact tracing in the event of a community spread of COVID-19 in the country.