The central theme of the III RNP Forum was presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director Najeeb Al-Shorbaji. He detailed the institution’s actions and how it uses the information and communication technologies (ICT) for health. 

“IT creates links among health processes through their systems. The important thing is to develop mechanisms that evidence that telemedicine is bringing results and benefits to the health care system. That is what we expect of the 100 units of Rute (Telemedicine University Network),” he said.

He explained that the result evaluation is a gap of e-Health. “It is costly because it is not part of the e-Health project management. There is also the fear of the results; lack of knowledge, standards and processes; various technologies, environments and applications; lack of prioritization and standard indicators.”

Najeeb defended that we need to think to e-Health as a multidisciplinary strategy. “Health treatment depends on the quality of collected and disseminated data. The big data has the potential to accelerate the research and provide answers to some of our times major difficulties. One problem is privacy. Once the data are collected, the individual has no grasp of what is being done with it,” he alleged.  

For the future, the WHO Director predicts globally increased use of standards and interoperability tools. “We also want to introduce training in health and technology for IT and health professionals,” he concluded.