Ministry selects CTC to upgrade telecoms platform

Chile's health ministry Minsal has awarded local telco Telefónica CTC (NYSE: CTC) a contract to upgrade its telecommunications platform, linking nearly 750 points plus all regional health ministry offices, Minsal digital agenda unit chief Renato Orellana told BNamericas. "We first launched a public tender for a contract to deploy an IP network that will interconnect all hospitals and small health centers without increasing costs because of the great distances [between them]," Orellana said. The sector is now working with several telecommunications providers but the department opted for one large contract to receive benefits of scale given the large traffic volume involved. "We are now discussing the terms of the contract. During the second half we expect Telefónica to start implementing the project," he added. The implementation process will take several months because several health centers are operating now under telecommunications contracts that have not yet ended. CTC can only start operating at points where there is no other valid contract in place. "However there are some services such as videoconferencing that will be implemented from the beginning of the project. The plan also considers implementing an intranet for the entire public health sector," Orellana said. According to the executive this telecommunications project would help increase the use of telemedicine and will help to better distribute scarce resources, including specialized doctors, who will be able to work online remotely. Other projects within the digital agenda for the health department include installation of a Health Information System (HIS), which would create a unique medical chart for each patient, accessible by all public hospitals. "In this area we plan to launch international public tenders this year to implement test applications in different areas, for pilots projects that will run during 2006," Orellana said. The health ministry is also working with Chile's IT industry association Acti to create the standards that will be used in the sector in coming years. To reach an agreement, both organizations have held meetings to create the Chilean chapter of Health Level 7 (HL7), an international standard for healthcare data exchange between computer applications. In terms of financing, Minsal has a total budget of 2.2bn pesos (US$3.4mn) for 2005 that comes from internal resources and also from a loan by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). "The current IT initiative has the support of health minister Pedro García, which is vital to keep the project going through the years and with different authorities in charge. The health sector needs to develop a robust IT policy that remains through time," he said.