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Contact:
Julita Peter
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| Director of SEAM Management Sciences, Keith
Johnson - Left and Managing Director - OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement
Services-PPS, Francis Burnett - Right after signing MOU |
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - The Open Relationships for Integrative
Organizations software program - ORION@MSH , developed specifically for
pharmaceutical stock management has been installed in St. Lucia, the pilot
country.
ORION@MSH, which will in time be installed in the wider region is built on ICICI
InfoTech's ORION inventory program, used to facilitate stock management.
Administered by the Management Sciences for Health (MSH), the software will
eventually phase out the 17-year old DOS software now used by 15 – 20 countries.
Managing Director of the St. Lucia-headquartered, OECS Pharmaceutical
Procurement Services-PPS, Francis Burnett, signing a Memorandum of Understanding
with MSH, said OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Services is grateful that St.
Lucia was selected as the pilot site for this program. “It is really virgin
territories, a new area for us and it is installed for the very first time in
St. Lucia and PPS, and we intend to roll out the program in St. Kitts and
Grenada later on this year,” Burnett added.
The ORION software is being installed by a six-member team of information
technology experts from the USA and India, who will also conduct training for
selected persons over the next five weeks.
Director of SEAM Management Sciences, Keith Johnson said that the OECS- PPS was
being considered a model for regional cooperation in the health field, adding
that WHO, World Bank and other donor organizations had put PPS on their list of
successes.
“Literally, any place that we go on our projects, there is recognition of the
fact that it is the Caribbean that leads the world on regional procurement.
Other countries have tried, but there have been very few successes. The other
regional block that has really succeeded is in the Middle East, where there is a
very tight group of countries set up in an effort to do procurement there, but
all other efforts basically, have failed,” Mr. Johnson said.
The ORION software comprises six interlinked modules to support all aspects of
medical store management based on industry standards and best practices. The
software is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has
donated millions of dollars to improve health care in developing countries.
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