Hong Kong experts are studying how to make use of IT to alert people if SARS comes back again or if new diseases break out in the future.

Information technologies including the Internet, video conference and data base have been utilized in Hong Kong's fight against SARS, Cheung Ngai Tseung, executive manager of the health information department of Hong Kong Hospital Authority told Xinhua in an exclusive interview recently.

During the outbreak of the dreadful disease, an electronic management system, named eSARS, was set up in Hong Kong. All the data of the more than 1,700 SARS patients in the city were put into the system, making it the world's largest and most comprehensive data base of SARS patients, said Cheung.

Mike Ryan, global outbreak alert and response network coordinator of the World Health Organization (WHO), had spoken highly of the system, saying, "eSARS is the first example of large scale use of the Internet to help manage a public health problem."

When the first SARS patient was found in Hong Kong in February, doctors firstly used fax to report the disease. Then a simple information report system was set up in March by the Hospital Authority.

From April 5 to 7, eSARS was established by experts within three days, and the system has been improved since then, said Cheung.

When a patient goes to the hospital, his doctor will input all of his information into eSARS according to standardized form, and compare his symptoms with the criteria of WHO to confirm whether the patient is a SARS patient or not.

Cheung said that all of the public hospitals in Hong Kong can share the information on eSARS, including personal data, daily situation of the patients, doctors' treatment and medicine being used.

The eSARS can also help analyze how the SARS virus is spread among people. Connected with the electronic system of Hong Kong police, the system helps trace the relatives and contacts of the SARS patients, said Cheung.

He said that eSARS is based on the existing clinical management system connecting all the hospitals and outpatient clinics in Hong Kong. The Hospital Authority plays the leading role in the development of the infrastructural elements essential for the Hong Kong health information superhighway.

The system's long term benefits to the citizens include access to a longitudinal electronic patient record which may be portable across all sectors in the health care system, with the assurance that the most up-to-date information, which is released only after the authorization of the patient, is utilized by their health professionals in providing care.

While Hong Kong doctors have the highest computer utilization rate in the world, Cheung said, it is not easy to push forward IT in the health care system. When he joined the Hospital Authority in 1991, he had no computer to use for nearly one year. When the first stage electronic clinical management system was set up in 1995, most Hong Kong doctors could not use a computer.

Cheung first got his bachelor degree in medicine and then gained a master degree in computer. His experience as a doctor helps him better understand the feeling of a doctor sitting in front of a computer.

"Many doctors refuse to use computer, because they think computer is not suitable for their work. Doctors are facing patients, not computer. They can not accept an ordinary computer," said Cheung.

He said the a computer for doctors should fit their work, should be fast and easy to manipulate. By using the computer, doctors will no longer have to write a lot of words every day. And more important, it will help the doctors diagnose and treat patients faster and more accurately.

The eSARS is continuing to run at present. But Cheung said a new system should be developed in the future. A new disease may break out outside hospitals. Therefore, the future system should have the function of early-warning, and it should be extended to customs, communities and other fields.

"It can not be achieved by ourselves only. It needs cooperation among different governmental departments and non-governmental organizations. It also needs the collaboration between Hong Kong and the mainland," said Cheung.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2003)