Information and Communications Technology Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico

9/13/21, 6:36 PM Information and Communications Technology Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico
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Information and Communications Technology Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico
INDUSTRY NEWS
Information and Communications

Technology Study of Public Health
Institutions in Mexico
Author: Carlos Zamora Sotelo, CISA, CISM, CGEIT and Carlos H. García Orozco
Date Published: 1 October 2013
Health services are a crucial activity worldwide and reflect the level of awareness and social
development of a country. In Mexico, 44 percent of the people perceive the main problem of
health services to be poor quality, with the affecting factors being timely care services, quality
of diagnosis and treatment.1 Another crucial issue is the availability of medical records among
public health institutions in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a
key role. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
Mexico is among the countries with the lowest expenditure on health. However, it has been
increasing steadily over the previous decade.2
The ICT Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico3 was conducted under the sponsorship of
Strategic Consulting Information Technology (ConSETI) and Brio Software Mexico (Brio).
ConSETI and Brio are using this study to help evolve health services in Mexico. The study
includes a gap/risk analysis of the current ICT situation, proposing recommendations that will
lead to the improvement and implementation of better ICT objectives in the public health
https://isaca-nc-prod-cm.azurewebsites.net/resources/news-and-trends/industry-news/2014/information-and-communications-technology-study-of-publ… 1/7
institutions. For this purpose, the sponsors became convinced of the importance of using
COBIT 5 and recognize it as the best practice framework for the governance and management
of enterprise IT (GEIT). It provides a holistic view, and a common language between ICT and
business. Thus, for the as-is stage of this study—the understanding and evaluation of the
current situation—the goals sought through COBIT were to:
Select the main processes
Identify the current health services’ capacities, gaps and risk factors related to those gaps
Reach implementation and maturity goals
Development
COBIT 5 utilization in the ICT assessment of public health institutions in Mexico was focused
on the following areas:
Defining the IT substantive processes—According to COBIT 5 and as a first step, ConSETI

and Brio selected the business objectives that had higher impact on the citizens. Eight were
selected and mapped, as shown in figure 1, resulting in 13 IT-related objectives, highlighted
in green in figure 1.
The second step was to map IT-selected objectives vs. the 37 primary COBIT processes.
Figure 2 is an example of the Align, Plan and Organize (APO) process with seven priority
processes. The total number of processes selected was 34.
Scoring processes capacities—For this assessment, the COBIT 4.1 process maturity model
was used rather than the newer COBIT Process Assessment Model (PAM) because the PAM
framework was released after the conclusion of the assessment.
The COBIT 4.1 process maturity model was used for scoring IT-selected processes, taking
into account the following attributes: responsibility and accountability; skills and expertise;
policies, plans and procedures; awareness and communication; goal setting and
measurement; and tools and automation. Every attribute was evaluated according to the
level of maturity defined in COBIT, to obtain the final score for every selected process, as
shown in figure 3.
Gap analysis—To determine gaps, the fourth maturity level of capacity (the process is able to
generate the results defined) was defined as the goal to achieve and it was contrasted
against the capacity level evaluated previously. Process capability level 4 (ensure efficient
and effective health services, and make predictable processes) was established as the goal
and is the basis for further definition of the strategy and action plan.
Associated risk—To identify the risk factors of each COBIT process selected, identified gaps
were taken into the gap analysis performed, thus evaluating the potential negative impact
that these gaps could have if not adequately addressed and materialized. Relevant and
inherent risk scenarios for each process were generated. For this, it was necessary to build
on the mapping of COBIT risk scenarios. Figure 4 is an example of the mapping performed.
It is important to mention that, in the identification of risk scenarios, ConSETI and Brio did
not evaluate the frequency of occurrence of identified risk.
Benefits
Integrating the COBIT 5 framework into the ICT Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico
has resulted in the following positive impacts:
The development of a well-defined, standardized analysis methodology, to determine gaps

and risk factors associated to the main IT processes selected for health services
institutions, related and aligned to major problems, such as the availability of health records
and medical consultation time improvement
Better alignment among IT and business goals and pain points
The generation of proposals, projects and IT strategies based on gap and risk analysis,
according to the capacity goal defined
At this point, COBIT 5 has been used only in the as-is diagnosis. In the future, the sponsors of
this study plan to use the same framework for the to-be state, in order to define a competitive
products and services portfolio, within and while implementing governance of enterprise IT
assurance.
Carlos Zamora Sotelo, CISA, CISM, CGEIT
Is the chief executive officer at ConSETI and has more than 15 years of experience in IT audit
and training more than 3,000 people. He can be contacted at czamora@conseti.com.
Carlos H. García Orozco
Is vice president at Brio and has more than 15 years of experience in IT, software development,
and business intelligence assessment and implementation. He can be contacted at
carlos.garcia@brio.com.mx.
Endnotes
1 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mexico
2
Ibid.
3 A summary of the study is available at www.tissmexico.net. The complete study is available
only for Mexican Public Health Federal Agencies at the Panamerican Public Health
Organization Library in Mexico and Washington DC, USA, offices.
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9/13/21, 6:36 PM Information and Communications Technology Study of Public Health Institutions in Mexico

Information and Communications

Date Published: 1 October 2013

Select the main processes

Reach implementation and maturity goals

Defining the IT substantive processes—According to COBIT 5 and as a first step, ConSETI

The development of a well-defined, standardized analysis methodology, to determine gaps

Better alignment among IT and business goals and pain points

Carlos Zamora Sotelo, CISA, CISM, CGEIT

Carlos H. García Orozco

3 A summary of the study is available at www.tissmexico.net. The complete study is available

Insights and Expertise 

Audit Programs and Tools

News & Trends 

Frameworks Standards and Models 

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