KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 – The Ministry of Health (MOH) is expanding its digitisation efforts by creating electronic registries for national immunisation, national transplant, and screening for breast cancer and cervical cancer, scheduled for this year.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told Ledang MP Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, in a written parliamentary reply on March 17, that the projects are part of a rolling plan for 2022 under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).
Other ongoing digitisation initiatives at the MOH include the development of the Malaysian Health Data Warehouse (MyHDW) – a centralised “health data warehouse” that collects data electronically related to health services in Malaysia.
The MyHDW system is used and expanded in all hospitals and health clinics in both the public and private sectors, Khairy said in a written parliamentary reply on March 17.
As of December 2021, MyHDW has 70,417,105 records. Khairy said MyHDW is used to analyse health data to produce health statistical reports and for strategic planning.
The MOH is also working on an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) project at government hospitals and clinics in Negeri Sembilan, which is expected to complete by the end of 2023.
“From a pandemic management standpoint, the government developed the MySejahtera app to assist in controlling the spread of Covid-19 through self-health assessment to know the health evaluation status. At the same time, this application also helps the MOH get preliminary information to take quick and effective actions.
“Another key function of the MySejahtera app is vaccination registration, which is linked to the vaccine management module at all vaccination centres under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK).
“Vaccination certificates are also displayed in this application. To date, over 30 million users have registered with MySejahtera,” Khairy said.
Khairy’s response comes just over a week after it was revealed to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in a meeting on March 8, that the Covid-19 app was actually developed without a contract between the government and Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd), the company that created it.
Khairy has since acknowledged that a contract had not been created when Entomo Malaysia developed MySejahtera for the government for free as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that ended on March 31 last year.
However, he told the press Monday that MySejahtera users’ personal data is protected by the government with a non-disclosure agreement, and is not shared with the private sector or a third party.
CodeBlue reported yesterday that Entomo Malaysia – which legally owns the software it used to develop MySejahtera – is fully owned by a company registered and based in Singapore, Entomo Pte Ltd.
Uncertainties over whether a private company actually owns Malaysia’s national Covid-19 app and users’ personal data have sparked widespread privacy concerns, resulting in a 26 per cent or some 6.3 million drop in MySejahtera check-ins on March 28 – two days after controversy broke. CodeBlue reported findings from PAC’s meeting on March 26.
