Pioneering Digital Healthcare in Colombia
When the Fundación Cardiovascular de Colombia (FCV) was established in 1986, the vision was clear: providing high-quality healthcare in Latin America demanded more than just building facilities. It meant leveraging clinical data effectively to improve patient care and anticipate potential risks. According to Dr. Victor Raúl Castillo Mantilla, CEO and President of the Hospital Internacional de Colombia – FCV, medical knowledge needed the support of technological tools to enable accurate diagnoses, timely treatments, and continuous monitoring.
In 1997, the Cardiovascular Institute, the first specialized hospital, opened. At the time, hospitals primarily used paper records, which made the development of an electronic medical record system an ambitious undertaking.
Innovation is an essential tool for ensuring access, efficiency and safety in health care delivery.
While the global digital transformation has faced challenges like access gaps, budget constraints, and lagging regulatory frameworks, these issues are amplified in Latin America due to structural inequalities and limited technological investment. The Hospital Internacional de Colombia – FCV aimed to overcome these challenges by charting its own course toward a digital ecosystem tailored to its specific context. This led to the creation of SAHI (Integrated Hospital Administration System).
SAHI, developed in-house, serves as the institution’s digital backbone, integrating electronic medical records with hospital operations. Its modular design allowed the hospital to progressively incorporate each specialty and care process. The system ensured clinical information – from admission to discharge and outpatient follow-up – was consistently accessible and up-to-date.
This technological foundation paved the way for the 2016 opening of the Hospital Internacional de Colombia (HIC). HIC expanded capabilities beyond cardiovascular care, integrating diverse medical and surgical specialties within a high-complexity model.
Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Patient Care
HIC is recognized for its digital maturity, achieving the highest level awarded by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a distinction held by only a few Latin American institutions. The certification reflects the hospital’s technology adoption and a digital mindset where healthcare professionals understand the value of data for improving patient safety, optimizing care flows, and strengthening clinical decision-making.
AI has been integrated into key processes over the past five years. The hospital uses AI to anticipate complications, optimize surgical scheduling, personalize treatments, and aid the medical team with data-driven recommendations. In collaboration with a Colombian startup, they have developed AI solutions tailored to the unique challenges in the Latin American region, specifically addressing data quality issues. The goal is to transform the data stored in SAHI into strategic inputs, improving processes and delivering safer, more personalized care.
Additionally, the Medical Observation Engine (MOE) system, combining computer vision and AI algorithms, monitors safety conditions in real time within patient rooms and operating rooms. MOE detects and alerts staff about potential risks, ensuring adherence to protocols and a safer environment, as well as promoting a more participatory care model.
Aligned with this approach, smart consultation rooms are being developed, designed to digitize every patient interaction in real time. The system gathers and analyzes key information from the moment an appointment is scheduled. This includes test results, diagnostic images, and personalized alerts. The goal is to make every consultation smoother, more personalized, and more efficient through the use of technology.
To further enhance this experience, the hospital developed SAHISmart, a digital scribe system powered by voice technology. SAHISmart automates consultation documentation, freeing physicians from administrative tasks so they can fully focus on their patients.
Currently, SAHISmart is implemented in outpatient settings and processes an average of 7,800 consultations per month. The next phase will expand its use to hospital environments, supporting progress notes, medical records, and nursing shift handovers. Initial data suggests a time savings of approximately six minutes per consultation. They aim to optimize up to 10 minutes per session, or a 30 to 33 percent reduction in consultation time, as the system stabilizes.
The Future of Healthcare in Latin America
The hospital’s digital transformation strategy is to engage the entire team, providing training and demonstrating through measurable outcomes how data enhances patient safety and streamlines processes.
One of the most impactful examples is the centralized telemonitoring system, which has contributed to a reduction in unobserved cardiac arrests. Similarly, medication safety has improved through the integration of multiple digital tools. Building on this foundation, the digital transformation has reshaped the entire medication management and dispensing process.
Dr. Castillo Mantilla emphasizes that the true measure of digital transformation lies not in the technology implemented but in the lives improved. The future of healthcare in Latin America must be built on locally developed technology, using local data and addressing the specific needs of the population. The hospital plans to continue investing in AI, interoperability, and advanced analytics, always prioritizing the improvement of patient lives.
