Improving the Quality of Care for Acute and Critically Ill Patients in Sri Lanka: National Intensive Care Surveillance (NICS)

NICS is an ICU bed availability system and critical care clinical registry for Sri Lanka. It is a system produced by an international collaboration led by the Ministry of Health, together with a core team of health care professionals. The registry provides information so that the closest ICU bed in the country can be identified rapidly, via telephone or online, by a clinician. The organization also supports health professionals in undertaking quality improvement initiatives, conducting research and accessing specialist clinical knowledge and skills training.

In a presentation at the International Conference on Public Health Innovations, National Institute of Health Sciences, Dr Pubudu De Silva, a specialist in critical care epidemiology and public health and project coordinator for the NICS, described the function and use of this system: “NICS is the only national electronic bed availability system and electronic clinical registry in a lower middle income country worldwide”. “It has begun to transform practice of critical care in Sri Lanka and is a potential model for the rest of the developing world”.

Utilizing the adult ICU registry as a template, the NICS hosts other registries including a Neonatal critical care, renal, rabies and a pilot abdominal and vascular surgery.

The NICS has won awards for innovation in healthcare and IT nationally and internationally.

Read more at:
www.nics-training.com
www.dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.04.021 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYfnPCsW-A

Information and links supplied by: 

Dr. A. Pubudu de Silva
MBBS (Colombo), MSc IT (University of Colombo School of Computing),
MSc Community Medicine (Colombo), MD Community Medicine (Colombo)
Specialist in Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health
Renal Disease Prevntion and Research Unit / National Intensive Care Surveillance
Ministry of Health
Sri Lanka