Chat With Specialists On MyHEALTH Portal

The Health Ministry plans to enable users of its MyHEALTH portal to chat with medical specialists in certain disciplines in a move to enhance its service. Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican (pic) said this was a plan of the ministry to increase the website contents in accordance with current needs.

The chat facility would provide for an interactive service in health risk assessment for the public to ascertain their risk towards contracting ailments such as diabetes, heart attacks and high blood pressure by inserting data on their lifestyle, nutrition, exercise and such, he said in a statement here.

Dr Ismail said the MyHEALTH portal can be accessed via www.myhealth.gov.my that was launched on April 25 2006, an initiative of the ministry through the telehealth flagship application of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

Since its launch, the portal has received more than 199,000 visitors who surfed 480 topics made available in Bahasa Malaysia and English, he said. He said the contents of the portal, which was created by the Telehealth Division, would be increased according to current needs.

Currently, apart from providing room for the government to deliver information and health education, it served as as a health service directory for the public to get information on the name, address and telephone number of all government hospitals and clinics as well as health centres of non-governmental organisations and the private sector, he said.

He said the portal also enabled the public to obtain specialist advisory services through email. "Nevertheless, it is not a substitute for a physical appointment with a specialist," he said, adding that an examination by a specialist was still necessary. (Bernama)
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