Starting October 19, a pilot program of personal SMS reminders about routine screenings will launch in three regions of Kazakhstan, and from October 26, citizens nationwide will begin receiving messages about every registered vaccination. The news was reported by infohub.kz.
According to the Ministry of Health, the agency is rolling out new digital services to monitor medical services. The pilot for personal SMS reminders about routine screenings will cover the Abai and Ulytau regions and the Akmola region.
The program will automatically generate lists of citizens due for routine examinations. The list covers six main disease categories, including cancer, diabetes, heart problems, cerebrovascular disorders and viral hepatitis.
After receiving the message, Kazakh citizens will be able to visit their polyclinic to undergo screening.
From October 26, residents of the country will begin receiving SMS about every vaccination entered into the database — their own or their child's. The message will indicate the date and name of the vaccine. If the vaccination was not actually administered, people can immediately report the fictitious record by replying via SMS to 1414 — the signal will be sent for verification to the Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Service.
At the same time, the Health Ministry is expanding the digital confirmation system for appointments in order to completely eliminate fictitious records. As of October 7, patients had confirmed 73% of nearly 136 million registered polyclinic visits through digital services.
It was previously reported that the Ministry of Health will tighten oversight of care for pregnant women and children under 5. In particular, Kazakhstan is introducing personal support for pregnant women in risk groups, enhanced postnatal patronage and monitoring of calls concerning children.