ICTA stall at Deyata Kirula 2012 to draw crowds

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) plans to display several information technology projects at the Deyata Kirula 2012 Exhibition to be held at Oyamaduwa, Anuradhapura from February 4-10.

Elaborating on the main projects due to be put on display at the national exhibition, ICTA Chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe said that among the projects to be highlighted in the ICTA stall at Deyata Kirula 2012 would be Lanka Gate, Telemedicine, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), 'eDiriya' (the national IT literacy initiative) and Career Guidance (IT-BPO).

Lanka Gate comes in handy for electronic payment. Electronic payment is a pivotal facility that contributes to making the optimum benefits of ICT accrue to the people. Lanka Gate is thus used for example when making electronic payment for obtaining of vehicle revenue licence from home or obtaining online visa by foreign passport holders.

Telemedicine makes medical treatment easier and less costly, less wearisome and less time-consuming for the patient and his / her relatives and friends. At the same time it makes more time available for the medical staff to serve more patients. For the very first time in Sri Lanka, doctors in government hospitals will be able to view a patient's comprehensive medical records on their computer screen, thanks to the newly developed Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS).

The HHIMS is a joint collaborative effort between the ICT agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the Ministry of Health. The initiative stemmed from the government's thrust to significantly improve service delivery to the citizens by using ICT.

The relevant software has been tested in five hospitals, Karavanella, Mawanella, Endegoda, Kitugala, and Deriyanagala - in the Kegalle district for over six months. Now it is ready to be installed in other government hospitals islandwide.

The Hospital Health Information Management System, is a free open source software that will enable doctors make accurate and well-informed diagnosis on their patients.

By simply having a registration number, the hospital staff will dispense medication and carry out tests as per the doctor's 'prescription' which is documented on the electronic patient's record available to them on their computer screens.

"This user-friendly software enables accurate diagnosis and will be crucial in helping government hospitals go paperless. In addition, it also facilitates the production of many routine but essential hospital reports thus saving time and much paperwork. As stated above a positive indirect effect of the system is that the medical staff has more time to attend to their patients.

A specialty of the ICTA stall this time will be practical seminar sessions three times a day. Simulating in some way layman's medical parlance, the three times a day one before lunch and two after lunch seminar sessions are poised to make a great transformation. They have been 'tailor-prepared' to make the participants make themselves more IT savvy, more ICT literate, more familiar with free and open source software, and more prepared to launch into an IT-BPO career.

Accordingly ICTA has planned to conduct three seminar sessions at 10 a.m. 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on February 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 at the Deyata Kirula ICTA stall themed mainly on three topics - eDiriya, FOSS and IT-BPO career guidance with two days for each theme.

The seminar sessions on 5 and 6 will be based on the ICTA eDiriya project launched recently to improve the ICT literacy level of the country. These eDiriya seminars will be targeted especially for school children and they will be given awareness about the value of being ICT literate. In addition there will be opportunities for students to get hands on training on basic ICT skills as the stall will be equipped with computers and internet connectivity.

The seminar sessions on 7 and 8 at the ICTA stall will be on free and open source software (FOSS) with a one-hour workshop conducted by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka. The FOSS seminars on these two days will cover five subjects such as Introduction to FOSS, Education and FOSS, Hanthana Linux OS, FOSS and ICTA and how to contribute to FOSS community.

A special feature at the ICTA stall of Deyata Kirula on 7 and 8 will be the workshop by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) referred to above. Called Deyata IT, the CSSL workshop at the ICTA stall in the Deyata Kirula exhibition will be an ICT awareness programme.

It will be aimed at giving some awareness about IT, IT education, IT higher education road map, and ICT career road map to students and parents. This CSSL workshop at the ICTA stall will be a one-hour workshop on both 7 and 8 beginning at about 11 a.m.

The seminar sessions of the last two days, 9 and 10, at the ICTA stall will be devoted for career guidance (IT-BPO).

This will focus in particular, on school leavers and students in OL and AL classes. ICTA sources said prospective participants in the IT-BPO career guidance seminars were encouraged to register themselves online.

Although those without this prior online registration will also be able to participate in the seminar if they are present at the stall at the scheduled time, prior online registration will be useful in organizing the seminar career (IT-BPO) guidance sessions in smoother manner while also helping statistical record-keeping.