Smart Strategy to Face New Norms: Efficient Management of Medical Data, Health Performance Analysis and Monitoring.
Authors: Yunus Zulkifli Mohamad 
Published: March 2017

"Smart" Strategy to Face New Norms: Efficient Management of Medical Data, Health Performance Analysis and Monitoring.

A visionary PETRONAS Stewardship, Health, Information & Environment Linked Database (SHIELD) Project was launched in March 2014. One of main modules is Occupational Health (OH) Database System that delves into the efficient management of employee's medical data and health performance indicator analysis. Sub modules consist of Fitness-To-Work, Medical Surveillance and Substance Misuse Testing. Development of database system has been divided into several waves, spanning over a five-year period.

The main objectives of OH Database System are: Creation of centralized platform to systematically manage medical data and records.Simplification of medical assessment processes, data mining and health performance analysis via system automation to save time and minimise error.Secure data storage capability in compliance to standards and legal requirements.

In order to ensure these objectives are met while keeping it practical and user friendly, the system is designed based on seven "smart" guiding principal namely Synergistic, Systematic, Streamline, Secure, Sustainable, Simplification and Save Cost. As an example, among functionalities developed for medical assessment process are: Integration with human resource database system to address matters related to employee's recruitment and mobility.Automated employee selection process of Medical Surveillance via integration with Industrial Hygiene Module.Process flow developed to comply with PETRONAS and relevant requirements.Selected forms and reports streamlined for PETRONAS use.Automated medical assessment due date generation.Notification email generation to employee and employee's supervisor from system.Automated audiometry analysis process.Occupational Health performance indicator dashboard generation from raw medical data.Secure and robust data management system with dedicated IT back-up functionality and controlled user access.

Efficient management of medical data entry into the system will be made possible with the development of e-Health functionality. This functionality channels semi-analyzed medical data and reports submission from medical service providers directly to the system via a dedicated web based network. This replaces effort of manual data entry which is currently done by PETRONAS users. PETRONAS users are mainly staff from medical department, human resource (HR) department and line supervisor who will benefit from workload reduction and more focus can be given to data verification and analysis. Among other benefits of e-Health functionalities are faster processing time, paper less transaction and reduction in hard copy data management especially from aspect of record storage.

Substance Misuse Testing sub module is being developed to support random employee selection requirement. Integration of OH and HR database will enable random selection based on specific percentage decided by user and secure system will ensure selection integrity.

Among the many challenges faced during system establishment so far was the change management aspect. Therefore, the most important step is to inculcate a belief in relevant stakeholders which will ensure establishment of system usage in operating facilities. Good system will not provide its optimum value if not fully used as it intended to.