The event, "2012 Information Technology for Health and Social Inclusion", was sponsored by Peru's national social security agency, EsSalud, and government office for informatics, ONGEI, with the objective of establishing a comprehensive public health care administration system (SINPA) and implementing modern management systems for social security goals through the collaboration of public and non-governmental non-profit organisations

Health IT panel and EsSalud management at the opening of the event. From left to right: 1. Mr. Victor Hugo Diaz Aravena, CEISUFRO Open Source Solutions Lab, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile; 2. Jaime Casanova Merchán, 2nd Quadrant, PostgreSQL Development, Ecuador; 3. Dr. Andrés Gustavo Papeschi, Project Angel, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 4. Jose Vicente Lopes da Silva, Center for Information Technology Archer - CTI, Sao Paulo - Brazil;  5. Dr. Milton Mario Moya Krause, Araucania Health, Temuco, Chile 6. Ronal Barrientos, President ONGEI-PCM, Lima, Perú; 7. Dr. Alvaro Vidal, President EsSalud, Lima, Peru; 8. Lemoene Smit, Project Manager & LIMS Analyst, Bika Lab Systems, Cape Town, South Africa; 9. Marcelino Villaverde Aguilar, Central Chief of OCTIC (Oficina Central de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicaciones), EsSalud, Lima, Peru; 10. Ricardo Rotenberg, Economist Fundación Getulio Vargas, Sao Paulo, Brazil; 11. Dr. Chris Larsen, Health It Specialist, Bika Lab Systems, De Nha Trang, Vietnam; 12. Luiz Campell, Fundación Getulio Vargas, Sao Paulo, Brazil; 13. Dr. Francisco E. Perez Torres, Head of Systems Coordination, Andalusian Health Service, Sevilla, Spain; 14. Sebastián Marró, Systems Engineer, Gnu Solidario, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The panel addressed over 200 health and IT professionals from all regions of Peru on the topic of health IT service solutions successfully implemented in other countries

Chief executive, Alvaro Vidal, said that EsSalud currently has a serious backlog in implementing new systems to replace ageing fragmented ones that do not allow adequate services to the insured EsSalud members

"In two years or so, it is planned to implement SINPA in all centres and administrative areas of EsSalud at  national level. The first stage starts this year with laboratory management modules, the immediate introduction of digital medical records and then followed by telemedicine applications. All these systems will run on terminal as well as mobile platforms."

SINPA, explained Villaverde Marcelino Aguilar, Chief of the Central Office of Information Technology and Communications (OCTIC), ensures transparency in government procurement, as well as proper distribution of medical supplies with efficient logistics management

The Bika delegation was impressed by EsSalud's inspirational commitment, not only to patient care, but also to Open Source and business ethics which will be our greatest pleasure to support

EsSalud inicia revolución tecnológica en beneficio de los asegurados