Adding yet another feather to its glowing cap, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) announced today it has received three prestigious ISO certifications in the field of data quality management, health informatics and data analysis.

The Ministry’s Statistics and Research Center has been awarded the certificates after meeting the requirements of the three ISO standards and passing comprehensive audits conducted by a specialized international team from the International Business Solutions.

Accordingly, the ministry has become the first federal entity in the region and first health body in the world to obtain three ISO certifications simultaneously, a new milestone that goes down in the UAE history and highlights the ministry’s commitment to quality standards to become a sustainable and innovative institution in accordance with international best practices.

HE Dr. Yousif Mohamed Al Serkal, Director General of the Emirates Health Services Establishment (EHSE), received the ISO certificates at the Ministry’s headquarters from the International Business Solutions’ representative.

H.E Dr. Mohamed Salim Al Olama, MoHAP Under-Secretary and Head of Board of Directors of the EHSE, and Dr. Hussein Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Undersecretary of Health Centres and Clinics Sector, were present.

Global Milestone

“This great achievement would not have been possible had it not been for the ministry’s painstaking efforts being made in the field of studies, research and data management to improve institutional performance, promote the concept of health sector governance, upgrade health services and ensure their sustainability,” Al Olama said, adding that the ministry made its utmost to provide necessary resources and infrastructure for data management, and carrying out statistical studies and research in accordance with the approved international principles and standards.

“Under this milestone, MoHAP has become the first health authority in the world to obtain these three certifications, something which would certainly boost the UAE’s position among the most competitive nations,” Al Olama stated.

He expressed his thanks and appreciation to the ministry’s team for their relentless efforts made to make this unprecedented achievement, which goes in line with the aspirations and vision of our wise leadership to always occupy high positions on all levels.

First of its kind

For his part, Al Serkal said: “The EHSE’s acquisition of ISO certificates represents an international recognition of the quality of performance and the competence of our cadres, and culminates the strenuous efforts we made to achieve institutional excellence and implement international best practices”.

“Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, our health facilities have met the requirements of national resilience and maintained business continuity. The EHSE is committed to following standards of sustainability to upgrade its medical and administrative services and is constantly working to support creativity and innovation in all health sectors and facilities under its umbrella, something which reflects the effectiveness of our strategic plans being implemented” Al Serkal added.

“This global achievement, the first of its kind, has become possible thanks to the unlimited support and wise directives of our government, which always seek to catapult the county’s institutions into new levels of leadership in line with the UAE Centennial,” he further said.

New milestone

Lauding the ministry and EHSE’s recent achievements, Dr. Hussein Al Rand said obtaining three ISO certificates reflects both entities’ keenness to update national health database based on statistical facts and develop policies and strategies to improve the quality of health care services by measuring health indicators.

“The new milestone will also support the ministry's strategy aiming to develop health information systems and apply international standards in managing infrastructure in health facilities, in a way that contributes to achieving the National Agenda goals and the comprehensive development goals 2030,” Al Rand noted.

Standard specifications

For her part, Dr. Alya Harbi, Director of Statistics and Research Center, said that the centre has been awarded the ISO certificates after meeting the requirements for the ISO 20252:2019 Market, opinion and social research, including insights and data analytics — Vocabulary and service requirements, which includes methods of data collection and specifies the size of study samples in accordance with statistical rules and data processing in terms of coding, analysis and information security.

In addition, the centre also met the requirement for ISO 8000-61:2016, which specifies the processes required for data quality management. The processes are used as a reference to enhance data quality and assess process capability or organizational maturity for data quality management.

She clarified that the third ISO certification “ISO/TS 29585:2010. Health informatics — Deployment of a clinical data warehouse,” is intended to provide an overall set of guidelines for clinical data warehouse deployment supported by useful descriptions concerning different data aggregation and modelling approaches as well as particular aspects of information architecture that contribute to successful deployment.