By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is set to introduce electronic medical records before the end of the year, marking a major step towards a fully-digitised healthcare system, according to Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Michael Darville.

Dr Darville said the reform, supported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and financed through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is already underway with a pilot programme in two clinics.

He described the move as “one of the greatest successes” of his ministry, saying it will transform the way patients and physicians manage medical information.

“This is where we’re heading in healthcare,” he said. “This is where we need to go. If we do not go this way, we would have a system that is not really functioning adequately, and we will not be able to have a smooth operation and growth and development of healthcare across the country.”

The shift will enable patients to control access to their medical records while allowing doctors across the islands to share information more efficiently.

“For our E-clinical records, a patient will have access to a mechanism where they can release records,” he said. “The records will ultimately be the responsibility of the patient, and there would be all these cybersecurity mechanisms of who can access what part of the records.”

The government is also rolling out complementary digital platforms, including a national scheduling system and pharmacy management network, designed to link clinics and hospitals across the country.

“Without digitisation of the records, without digitisation of pharmacy, without digitisation of appointment schedules, it’s going to be very difficult for us to move from where we are to a more modernised healthcare service, where services are delivered in a timely or patient care environment,” Dr Darville said.

To safeguard the system, new legislation is being drafted to regulate the storage, privacy, and use of health data, with cybersecurity protections a central focus.

“There has to be legislation that would govern the way how data is managed in the country, where data would be stored, the privacy associated with data,” he said. “This legislation will guide not only my ministry, but digitisation throughout the country, and it’s absolutely something that must come into play.”

The minister stressed the importance of strong safeguards during an AI cybersecurity training hosted by his ministry and PAHO.

“It’s important that you have this cybersecurity mechanism to ensure that my digital records don’t get into the wrong hands, and that requires a lot of very important steps,” he said.

Dr Darville said the digitisation effort has been nearly four years in the making and will serve as the backbone of wider health sector improvements.

As part of those improvements, the government is preparing to break ground on a new $200m modern healthcare facility, with financing secured through international agreements.

He confirmed that procurement for land clearing has been completed and construction will begin “very soon,” noting the government is finalising documents with the Chinese Exim Bank following an earlier concession loan agreement.

“You can’t build a modern healthcare facility for 200 plus million dollars, and it is not digitised. Everywhere is becoming digitised,” he said.

Dr Darville tied the new facility to his ministry’s push for a paper-free healthcare system, promising transparency as construction begins.

“I also made a commitment from that with the Opening of Parliament that we would update the Bahamian people about the parameters and what it means and become very transparent of what the next steps would be.”