USM AMDI GRABS FIRST PLACE IN MYGOSS 2012 AWARD

SHAH ALAM, 26 November 2012 - Universiti Sains Malaysia Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (USM AMDI) has bagged first place in the Malaysian Government Open Source Software (MyGOSS) 2012 Award in Shah Alam recently.

The award ceremony was organised by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation & Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), Prime Minister Department, and it was held in conjunction with the Malaysian Government Open Source Software Conference (MyGOSSCON) 2012 at the Shah Alam Convention Centre (SACC).

MyGOSS Awards 2012 is a testament of the government's commitment to recognise and appreciate organisations that show initiative and excellence in all aspects of the implementation and use of information and communication technology based on open source software (OSS).

The award ceremony was officiated by the MAMPU Director General, Dato’ Mohamad Zabidi Zainal.

USM AMDI is represented by its Bio-ICT Section comprising of Adnan bin Hamid (Bio-ICT Manager), Salmiza Zakaria (Information Technology Officer) and four Information Technology Assistant Officers comprising of Rozaini bin Rais, Ahmad Rafiq bin Nordin, Sheikh Mohd Amar Hestzuan bin Sheikh Mohd Saaid and Mohd. Ridzuan bin Harun who have been successfully selected from their participation in the i-Care2x project (Total Hospital Information System).

According to Adnan, i-Care2x is a web-based application that supports services at the AMDI hospital with features that simplify user systems according to their respective functions.

He said this system covers all activities and transactions in the AMDI hospital in Clinical Research Complex starting from the registration of patient information, admission information and treatment of sicknesses, issuance of drug description information in the pharmacy until the payment process.

“Some of the technologies used in the development of i-Care2x were Linux Ubuntu Server Edition as the operating system of the server, MySQL as the database, Apache Web Server as the web server, and PHP and CSS as web programming languages.

“Also included in the i-Care2x are JavaScript, Ajax, JQuery and Java Applet and MirthConnect as open source software that were used for the i-Care2x integration with other systems (example: Radiology Information Systems and Lab Information System) via HL7 protocol,” he said.

Adnan also said that the implementation of i-Care2x have a profound impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of hospital management including the review of a patient’s history, duplication of a patient’s data, data security, and reliability to access of each patient’s records.

He said that all these features were considered during the development process to ensure the proper functioning of the i-Care2x to meet the needs and characteristics of an actual hospital information system.

“I-Care2x is apt to be introduced to any hospital, either government or private hospitals, in which they can save costs that could reach tens of millions of dollars of development cost, maintenance and implementation.

“Full utilisation of Open Source Software and their ability to integrate with any other system connected with the hospital information system makes the i-Care2x a system applicable as a guide for all hospitals in Malaysia,'' he said.

Adnan added that i-Care2x project would keep pace with the Public Sector Transformation Programme in setting first-class service standards based on best practices as the foundation of a world-class service delivery.

He also added that i-Care2x can be a catalyst and a leader of excellence towards the modernisation of the public sector in the medical field as well as provide a variety of benefits to the public, particularly in the improvement of the quality of service delivery, making the treatment process more efficient and faster.

He said that the integration and sharing of information between modules to facilitate the process of treatment of i-Care2x patients benefits the government in terms of cost savings in the development, improvement and maintenance in which the dependence on suppliers can be avoided.

USM AMDI had previously won the 2009 National Open Source Software Case Study Award 2009 (Public Higher Education Institution Category) organised by MAMPU, Prime Minister Department through its project entitled Open Source Integrated Library System (Koha). - Text: Adnan Hamid / Photo: Ahmad Rizwan Zulkharnain / Translation: Yong Check Yoon