A software solution for ambulatory healthcare facilities in the Republic of Serbia

During the last decade, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, a developing country, funded several projects aiming to make the public healthcare system more efficient through the use of information technology (IT). This system development experience paper presents the first results of our project that develops software support for public ambulatory healthcare facilities, concentrating efforts on improving the work environment of general practice (GP) doctors. While earlier projects in Serbia centered on organizational and financial aspects of healthcare processes, our project focuses on medical aspects and results in a medical information system (MIS) based on a specially developed electronic health record (EHR). We also present a brief overview of our supporting tools for data modeling and application generation, developed for easier realization of MIS. Another goal of the project is to support interoperation and cooperation of ambulatory and clinical MIS within the University Clinical Center of Nis (there is no similar interoperation in any city in Serbia). The main contribution of this system development experience paper is to show how we have been applying and adapting modern MIS concepts in challenging circumstances of a developing country. These experiences could be relevant for other countries with similar challenges.