Evolution of Health Informatics in Malaysia

Pre-independence

During the British civil administration days (1874-1947), health information and events were recorded and documented by the medical department. Sanitary inspectors and public health nurses carried out collection of data for the public health activities in the course of their work. In the hospitals, static dispensaries and institutions for special diseases, data collection was carried out by the hospital assistants and nurses.

The Annual State Health Situations Assessment Reports were given to the Medical Department Headquarters (one for the Straits Settlement States and the other for the Federated Malay States) to prepare an annual report on the health situation of the country as a whole. Between 1948 to 1962, the gathering of health information rested with the Medical Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare.

Post-independence

In 1963, with the formation of Malaysia, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare were merged to become the Ministry of Health. The responsibility for health information collection continued to be undertaken by the Medical Services Division. By the second half of the 1960s, this function was taken over by the Medical Records and Health Statistics Unit set up in the Planning and Development Division. The Unit functioned as a data coordination unit for the Ministry of Health.

In 1972, an Operation Research Unit (ORU) was set up. The primary function of this unit was to monitor the development of the National Health Information System (NHIS). The Ministry sought assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1975 to study and recommend improvements to the existing Health Information System and resulted in a comprehensive information system through a National Health Management Information System Development Project (NHMISDP). In November 1978, the Chief Secretary to the Government directed to all Ministries and Government Departments to set up a Documentation System Unit to ensure proper documentations of data which are comprehensive and up-to-date.

The Information and Documentation (IDS) Unit was established in Ministry of Health in 1981, replacing the Medical Records and Health Statistics Unit and the Operations Research Unit. In time, the role of IDS expanded beyond Health Statistics reporting and Health Information Management Systems (HIMS) monitoring. IDS also carried the responsibility of ensuring the proper methodology in acquiring quality health data, perform statistical analysis, identify new Health Indicators and health information, and disseminate these information on behalf of MoH. The information must be produced on a reliable, responsive and timely fashion. Whilst all this, IDS also faced a challenge of non-interoperability of various Health Information Systems within the Ministry, a worldwide problem due to nonconformance to Health Informatics Standards

To address these issues, IDS proposed the formation of Health Informatics Centre (HIC), approved in 2007, to carry out three (3) major functions namely data management, publication and dissemination, and development of Health Informatics Standards. IDS produced the Health Information Management Systems (HIMS) Blueprint where the plan to set up a national health data warehouse was deliberated. This plan was aligned with the MoH ICT Strategic Planning 2011-2015.

Recent years

HIC actively pursued the above objective in 2011, and formally named the project as Malaysian Health Data Warehouse (MyHDW). The first document was produced in collaboration with an international consultant appointed by WHO. The same consultant was later appointed by MoH for a series of consultations in 2012 and 2013, to assist MoH in the works to support the planning, successful development and evolution of MyHDW. Each session's output was detailed in documentation, which are compiled in this publication.

It is the Ministry’s sincere hope that the documents contained within this publication will be our reference and guidelines in MyHDW development. In the future, MyHDW will then be “a trusted source of truth of comprehensive health data structured for query and analysis.” The high-quality information produced will benefit MoH in making well-informed decisions and planning in Malaysia’s health sector.

Health Informatics Centre, 2013

An excerpt from the "Malaysian Health Data Warehouse 2011-2013", MALAYSIAMOH/RAN/69.13 (GU)The full document can be found and downloaded here: https://myhdw.moh.gov.my/public/home

Written by yours truly, reviewed by senior officers. I'm just reminiscing the time when I began learning to write. I love this part, a little bit of history. History makes us move forward.

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