The health secretary of the State of Bahia, Fábio Vilas-Boas, the Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), represented by the Deputy Director of Institutional Relations, Gorgonio Araújo, and the Secretary of Science and Technology from Bahia, Adélia Pinheiro, signed on August 21, a cooperation term to develop information technology and knowledge solutions aimed at improving teaching, research, and care in state health units. The agreement was signed during the "Digital Health Workshop: Challenges for Bahia," which is an event that gathered over 200 representatives of state and federal governments, as well as universities and entities of the technology market, at Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública (EBMSP), in Salvador.

According to the secretary, “the initiative includes implementation of the necessary infrastructure to provide telecare and computerization, which means that the long-awaited integration of medical records and search for the single medical record in Bahia are closer than ever,” said Vilas-Boas.

The holder of the state Health Department pointed out that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a transformative role in health management, and they are a key element to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in health and welfare. "This includes the transformation of health systems into universal ones, which meets the proposal of the World Health Organization (WHO)."

The unprecedented agreement with a Health Office is the first step towards a more intense collaboration, aiming to use initiatives of the new backbone connection structure in the Northeast, contributing to health teaching and research actions in the state of Bahia.

With information from the Communication Office of Bahia State Secretariat of Health (Ascom / Sesab).