English|Português|Español
UserPasswordLogin

HOME
SESSIONS
INFO
MSP

Electronic Government & GeneXus: Public services focused on citizens

The Ministry of Public Health of Uruguay – in line with the strategic lines of Electronic Government – will soon achieve the interconnection of all maternity systems in the country to generate the Electronic Live Birth Certificate, which was launched in 2008.
According to the world assessment carried out annually by the United Nations, Uruguay currently ranks third according to its development of Electronic Government (EG) in the list of all Latin American countries. The Office for Development of the Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society, AGESIC according to its Spanish acronym (“Agencia para el Desarrollo del Gobierno de Gestión Electrónica y la Sociedad de la Información y del Conocimiento”) is the State agency created in 2005 to promote the project by contributing to a better relationship between the public administration and the citizens, for which it resorts to ICTs.

Among the several projects that are currently in progress along with the EG strategic line is the Electronic Live Birth Certificate –developed with GeneXus by the Ministry of Public Health (“MSP”)- which has national coverage and the possibility of measuring interoperability and connectivity necessary for an efficient Electronic Government platform.

Electronic Live Birth Certificate: pioneering project of the Electronic Government

The Electronic Live Birth Certificate (CNVE) is one of the bases of the Electronic Government. It was one of the first projects implemented to test the functioning of the RedUy platform (a high speed and availability network that connects all Ministries and the basic State agencies) which will soon be completed, and has been successfully in use since 2008. The Ministry of Health was responsible for this development, for interaction with other organizations like the National Civil Identification Office (DNIC), the Social Security Bank and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Alicia Ferreira, the Director of the Information Systems Division of the Ministry of Health, explained that the system was conceived on the basis of a technological base that would allow interoperability and connectivity among the various agencies and the use of Web Services, including the definition of standards (See chart: “Why GeneXus?”).

The CNVE’s main objective is to improve the timeliness and quality of citizen registration of those born in Uruguay, so that every inhabitant will have an ID number at birth. For this purpose, the connection between the CNVE system and all maternity centers is planned to take place soon – the first grand step was in 2008 at the country’s main maternity center: the Pereira Rossell Center-, as well with other related systems, both private and public, or other related with programs within the Ministry of Health, like the Perinatal Information System (SIP).

The process starts with a record by those who first assist pregnant women, and another record by the gynecologist who is present at the birth, with an electronic signature. The application is connected to the DNIC through web services to forward all data relative to the mother for the DNIC to later send the confirmation of the mother’s ID number and the match with all other data. What would this mechanism help to avoid? The forgery of certificates.

Following the birth of the child, the data is entered and forwarded to the DNIC, which in turn returns a reserved ID number. Also the birth certificate remains in the database with clinical information to be there for the rest of the individual’s life. This is the start of a Single Clinical File”, said Gerardo Abreu, the technical Manager of the MSP’s division and one of the officials responsible for the project.

Until now, the clinical file has been written and identified in various ways and according to different criteria. From now on, the ID number will be the number of the Clinical File of the newly born citizen.

Among other benefits like accessibility, prompt documentation and unified information systems, the CNVE will allow, in the future, greater control of the identity of mothers, to be included in the interconnection with the DNIC with fingerprint data.

Main benefits of implementing the CNVE:

• Avoids double entry of data, both of the newly born and the mother’s, with the purpose of minimizing errors.
• Better identity control of mothers, and the avoidance of fraud.
• Avoids the need to request data from citizens on numerous occasions, which becomes annoying and discourages use of the system.

The CNVE project also allows optimization of data on vital statistics according to the UNDP’s (United Nations Development Programme) requirements. “Until now, we had birth and death records on paper, which implies not only the problem of paper files but also the fact that the following digitalization is a lengthy process that delays statistics”, said Abreu in that respect.

Having the CNVE in full function, said the Director Alicia Ferreira, will bring about the Project called SEVEN (Vital Statistics, Pregnancy and Childhood System, according to its Spanish acronym) a pioneer in Latin America. On the same database of the CNVE, data on the various moments and processes of the individual’s health will be added for the birth, the death, the perinatal data and the clinical file to be all on a single document to ensure medical control for all children until the second year of age. All such technological processes will result in improved health and the avoidance of premature deaths in children.

Uruguay: an ideal Electronic Government “pilot”

According to the Director of the Information Systems Division of the MSP, the advantages of projects of this magnitude carried out in a country with the characteristics of Uruguay “are that we are a small population that makes us an ideal electronic government pilot”. And we would be more ideal if we focus on this particular project, because, among developing countries, 97% of births in Uruguay take place in public institutions, “this means that births occur at maternity centers and not in rural areas or at homes. Our maternity centers have the technology necessary for Internet connection, one of the scenarios needed to implement this type of projects covering 100% of the 40 to 50 thousand births occurred each year in Uruguay. This, in addition to the fact that Uruguay is one of the countries with a greater index of Internet penetration” explained Alicia Ferreira.
 
Why GeneXus?
For the 2005 Central Computer System Plan, the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) was focused on the objectives set forth by the Electronic Government defined by Uruguay’s Digital Agenda 2009/10. Its strategic technological guidelines include the use of standardized development tools – including GeneXus – so as to achieve uniform developments.

Why GeneXus? Because it allows the idea that every State organization has to have Knowledge Bases. In this sense, GeneXus complies with all requirements established in the calls for bids issued by the Ministry of Health, and also it relates to the implementation of Electronic Government in Uruguay since it generates the code that may be used in the country’s government platform.

Other standards adopted by the Director Plan for Computer systems are: Java as development platform, SOA as the main element for interoperations and scalability and Oracle. The Electronic Government platform is based on a JBoss structure for exploitation and .NET, and these technologies are in line with the MSP.

Objectives of Electronic Government in Uruguay:

• To create a high-speed physical communications network to connect the head offices of Executive Units in the Public Administration.
• To extend the use of digital signatures to all the public, private and academic sectors, and all other sectors in society.
• To facilitate interoperations of procedures and services among Public Administration offices with the implementation of the Platform for Electronic Government in Uruguay.
• To develop and improve the State Portal, by defining it as the main digital access to the Public Administration agencies and its related services, as well as an instrument for transparency and citizen participation.
• To resort to the regulatory, institutional and technical resources for allowing interoperations and the extended use of electronic dossiers for all of the Public Administration.
• To promote decentralized access to State services, by installing Citizen Services Centers (“Centros de Atención Ciudadana” - CAC) to assist in official procedures and services.
• To promote the local Knowledge Society based on the model of Digital Communities or Cities, by promoting the use of portals for regional governments to provide municipal information and services and allow for the participation of citizens.
• To promote the best practices in Electronic Government in public organizations. 
 
Related
Data automation, security and accuracy
Value added to the government's foreign trade
K2B at Uruguay's Instituto Nacional de Colonización: accessibility and swiftness in procedures for the whole country
Idefoto: Web development at the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Special Edition #GeneXusTheBestOf2014 :: Cloud Computing, the Internet of Things, GeneXus X Evolution 3, Success Stories, Smart Devices and ... Much More!
Release of U2 of GeneXus Evolution 3
Chopo Mobile introduces successful app in Mexico, developed with GeneXus and used for medical studies
GeneXus™ ERP Explorer and Connector for SAP® ERP Now Live on SAP Store
We have a new Download Center! The GeneXus download center has an enhanced appearance at its new location
Demand for Apple TV apps expected to double in 2016
What we've learned about GeneXus by working with Gartner (by Gabriel Simonet)
Agile or Waterfall development? (by Breogán Gonda)
We are pleased to share an interesting white paper about GeneXus, written by Kapil Ambwani from India!
Mickey, Toy Story & GeneXus: Why robots will transform developers?
GeneXus™ Named a NEW Challenger by Gartner In Its 2017 Magic Quadrant for App Development Platforms Report