Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
-
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the full extent of technology usage in health management. Although it is pandemic, it started as small outbreaks in my country especially, we called them first and second waves of COVID-19. At the beginning, positive case detection is very critical. At the onset, timely detection of positive cases was crucial. Laboratory confirmations were typically available by early evening, reported to the central disease control unit shortly thereafter, and followed by immediate quarantine measures by local authorities. Such rapid outbreak detection and response were enabled by digital reporting platforms and real-time information dissemination systems.
Vaccination is the most effective control method in COVID-19. In Myanmar, first batch of vaccination was conducted to healthcare workers as they are the front line personnels during the pandemic. The certification and validation of massive vaccination in short period can be only possible by modern technologies. In Myanmar, unique identifier (Master Patient Index – MPI) was planned to roll out with the nationwide vaccination campaign. Digital vaccination card, anonymous contact tracing features released by Apple and Google for their iOS and android platforms and event or location check-in using QR code were considered for more effective and efficient contact tracing. Although those plans were shattered by the country’s political instability, it evidently showed that technology became a vital tool for outbreak management of any communicable diseases.
Moreover, telemedicine and robotic delivery proved to be very useful in monitoring and treatment of complicated patients during COVID-19 pandemic. It evolves into a new culture of virtual training and virtual meetings. Those are quick and effective ways of outbreak detection, response and control as compared to conventional training and meetings.
-
With a background in both medicine and computer science, I already possess strong foundations in clinical knowledge and technical expertise, which are essential for health informatics. However, to further improve as a professional in public health or health informatics, I need to strengthen my understanding of public health statistics, public health system design and organizational development to effectively contribute to building resilient health systems. This includes learning how to design sustainable health programs, improve workflows, and align digital health solutions with organizational goals.
Additionally, I need advanced knowledge in epidemiology and population health to interpret disease trends and support evidence-based decision-making. Beyond technical skills, I must gain knowledge of health policies, governance, and regulatory frameworks to ensure ethical and secure use of health data.
Equally important are communication and leadership skills, which are critical for stakeholder engagement and effective collaboration between technical and clinical teams. By integrating expertise in technology, public health systems, organizational development, and communication, I will enable to design and implement innovative solutions that strengthen public health systems and improve public health outcomes.
-
If I were a director or executive of a hospital, I would plan to gradually migrate the hospital’s information system to cloud computing, but with a carefully phased and secure approach. The decision would be driven by the growing need for efficiency, and modern healthcare delivery, while carefully addressing privacy, security, and operational continuity.
Data privacy and security are major concerns in cloud migration. The plan must compliance with regulations like local healthcare data protection policies. Sensitive patient information must be encrypted both in transit and at rest, with strict access controls and audit trails. I would plan to select cloud providers with a proven track record in healthcare, excellent security certifications, and clear contractual obligations regarding data ownership and breach notification.
In terms of economics, cloud computing offers significant advantages in scalability and cost-efficiency. Cloud platforms allow IT resources to be scaled up or down on demand, avoiding the need for heavy upfront investment in physical servers. This reduces both capital expenditure and ongoing maintenance costs, while allowing the IT team to focus more on strategic initiatives rather than server upkeep.
Finally, business continuity and disaster recovery are major advantages of cloud computing. Cloud platforms typically offer automated backups, redundant storage, and geographically distributed data centers. In the event of hardware failure, natural disasters, or cyberattacks, hospital operations can continue with minimal downtime, protecting both patient safety and institutional reputation.
If the hospital is under the chain of many hospitals, cloud computing will enable integration with other hospitals and enhance collaboration and coordination for resource planning.
In conclusion, I would pursue cloud adoption as a strategic initiative to modernize the hospital’s IT infrastructure, improve accessibility, and reduce costs, while carefully mitigating risks related to privacy, security, and workflow disruption. A phased approach with strong vendor partnerships and compliance measures would ensure a successful transition that benefits both patients and hospital staff.
-
Has your computer or a computer in your workplace ever been attacked by a cyber threat? How did it happen?
One day, one of officers from another team informed me that their development server is really slow and cannot access properly. After the investigation, we found out that ransomware is running and encrypting all the files on the server causing it to slow down. It was Monday, we did have daily backup and luckily Saturday back up is unaffected. We quickly shutdown the server and restored the unaffected backup. This server is used only on weekdays; therefore no daily operation is affected.What was the cause? How was your computer or data affected?
After the incident, we did the investigation. Initial entry point of attack came from a java war file on tomcat server running on that server. Normally it didn’t open all the time. But this time one developer left it running without changing the default admin password of tomcat Manager GUI. The attacker used the default password to install and run their war file on that server. Using that war file, they managed to install a trojan as a backup plan and install worms and ransomware. They also tried to penetrate other computers in the network, but our firewall prevented it. I think that they initially plan to build botnets if they can affect other computers in the network, but they choose to use ransomware after they fail. Luckily, no real data is affected.What can you do to prevent it from happening again in the future?
After the incident, we added two instructions to SOP to use the server.
1. Nothing left open and closed properly after the testing or development.
2. Never leave the default password as it is after a new system is deployed.I hope that my experience will help the others to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
Thanks -
If I were to build a medical app for patients and doctors, I would build a mobile app for chronic patient self-care. Chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease require continuous disease data collection. Those data can be collected via smart watches, smart glucometers, smart pressure cuffs and smart weight scale or patient can manually record if there are no smart devices for automation. The patient can use the app to record own health data locally on the app without sharing it with anyone. When the patient visits the hospital for follow up, he/she can share these data with the hospital system via Health Information Exchange (HIE) as described in last week’s discussion. These data will be very useful for chronic disease management and will greatly improve health outcomes of individual patients.
The app will be a mobile app with cross-platform native technology (Flutter) to reduce the development cost for both iOS and android platforms and better integration with platform health data management. As the data is stored locally on the devices, there is no maintenance cost for server and also reduce the risk for data privacy. The app will use HL7 FHIR standard to share, so the patient data will not be locked into one system and can share any system via the standard protocols if the data owner allows.
Please feel free to add comments on my idea.
Thank you. -
Hello everyone. I am Than Htike Aung from Myanmar and you can call me Aung. My got my Bachelor degree in Medicine and Surgery, got Master degree in Computer Science. I hope this program will help me to bridge these two different disciplines together. I am currently working as a manager in an INGO and manages digital health related projects. Therefore, this program will help me a lot to improve my knowledge in implementation of my work.
Moreover, I hope to learn invaluable experiences from all the teachers and other students as well. Looking forward to learning with all of you together. -
I would like to contribute about Health Information Exchange (HIE) as one example for this discussion.
Patients visit multiple clinics, hospitals, and labs throughout their life. Each facility keeps its own records, often in different formats and separate systems. This causes:- Delays in care because previous medical history isn’t available
- Duplicate tests and procedures
- Incomplete patient information for decision-making
- Difficulty in public health reporting and analysis
Therefore, we need HIE. It allows secure sharing of health data between different healthcare organizations and systems, following interoperability standards such as HL7 and FHIR. It acts as a central bridge that connects different healthcare platforms. If we scale up, it can becomes data repository for different programs under ministry, different ministries under same country and between different industries (e.g., between healthcare and insurance).
Hardware
Problem: Reliable internet can be big issue in some countries and some areas.
Solution: Think and build as offline first approach for data exchange with on-demand data synchronization processes.Software
Problem: Different departments will use different ISs even under the same hospital lacking no common data exchange format.
Solution: Implement standardized data exchange protocols. Seamless integration with existing platforms is important for successful implementation.Data
Problem: Inconsistent patient identifiers across different facilities causing mismatched or duplicated records.
Solution: Introduce Master Patient Index (MPI) to uniquely identify patients across all systems.Process
Problem: Procedure to request medical records can be complicated and cause delays.
Solution: Develop simple procedure and automated as much as possible including consent-based access by the patient.People
Problem: Healthcare staffs may be unfamiliar with HIE workflows and privacy concerns.
Solution: Role-based access and provide training to staffs as well as educate the patients. -
-
I think this is a really interesting topic as Apple is known for good security measures although some major leaks from apple devices due to targeted attack. Did you find out the root cause and how they able to access Apple Pay to withdraw your money? And when did that happen as Apple usually upgrade their security over the time?
Thanks -
I think that this is excellent idea. It will also be beneficial to medical persons and also to HR. As most of the payroll is based upon these duty shifts, it can be calculated efficiently. Moreover, as it can be expanded to OPD duty, referrals and linkage with other specialities will be quick and easy. It will also be beneficial to the patients too.
-
I would like to give some information about No.2. There is a software called mSupply is used to manage all commodities under public health department and also used by some NGOs in Myanmar. You can download it from here for free and try. It only needs to pay if you want to use multiple machines. They have user manual but learning curve is a little steep. You are totally right about the other points, and I all agree with you.
-
