Big data healthcare system will deliver better medicine to all Thais

The remark was made as the country's Big Data Institute (BDI) demonstrated the most recent advances in connecting massive amounts of patient data from nearly all public hospitals via Health Link, a national healthcare connectivity system.

Chaiwut explained that the Health Link project has three primary goals. The first is to make healthcare data accessible to both individuals and medical personnel. The second is to have credible big data for researchers and experts to use in order to identify health solutions, and the third is to critically analyse the data in order to develop effective national health policies.

Health Link is nearly finished connecting all the data from almost all hospitals nationwide. However, the data cannot be shared until patients give consent via the platform.

Around 1,100 public hospitals have joined the Health Link platform.

"Today's event is intended to encourage people to download the Health Link program and register to provide consent so that they can receive proper treatment at any public hospital. As for private hospitals, we are still discussing and exploring ways to connect their data," he said.

Tiraniee Achalakul, director of the BDI, said that one of the most challenging aspects of managing Thailand's healthcare system is the country's lack of data sharing or connectivity.

Each hospital kept its own data using its own methods. As a result, she said, it was difficult for people to receive appropriate treatment from other hospitals.

"We developed Health Link to create a 100% safe and accurate connection system. This means that if patients need to transfer to another hospital, they can do so without wasting time waiting for the necessary documents," she explained, adding that in critical cases, wasting even one second could result in death.

Digital technology enables massive amounts of healthcare data to be analysed to improve the quality of life for everyone, Thiranee said.