Information city: plans for 2017

The Moscow authorities have elaborated on their plans to implement the federal Information City programme for this year. New technologies will be further introduced in the field of healthcare, education, housing and utilities. Another priority for the next two years is to provide good quality communications during the upcoming events: the FIFA Confederations Cup, the World Cup, Russia’s 2018 presidential election and the Moscow mayoral elections.

Moscow Online School

This year 30 percent of Moscow schools will adopt a new education standard and join the Moscow Online School project.

 

The Moscow Online Platform was launched in October 2016 and was then joined by schools #627, 1995, 1194, 2095, 1298, and also lyceum #1571. The project seeks to make the most of the latest IT-infrastructure hence improving the quality of education.

New generation schools are supplied with interactive equipment, Wi-Fi network, access to online material, and electronic registers and records. IT technologies and modern teaching methods as well as new teaching instruments are available for schools.

IT for housing and utilities

This year, Moscow authorities intend to further upgrade the monitoring and management of the city’s cleaning and maintenance services. The integrated control centre will also continue operating so as to improve the housing and utilities services for residents. Fifty-five percent of enquiries the control centre has to deal with on a daily basis are related to housing and utilities. Five percent are paid services.

Electronic healthcare

The majority, 97 percent, of doctors at out-patient clinics use electronic medical records. Electronic medical records are one of the main services of Moscow’s Integrated Medical Information and Analytical System. The medical records show information about examination results, diagnoses, treatment, prescriptions, referrals, medical notes and sick notes. The system allows doctors to see the patient’s complete medical history and makes it easier to work with documents. Patients in turn get good quality medical aid, taking into account their medical background.

The majority, 60 percent, of lab tests requested by out-patient clinic doctors are conducted via the centralized online lab service.

This year, structured cabling systems will be installed in Moscow in-patient clinics along with local area networks.

Smart government services

Smart government services are taking off in the capital city. Ninety-seven percent of the services that can be performed online are already available on mos.ru. About 62 percent of Moscow residents, which is 7.6 million users of mos.ru and various mobile apps, are already using online government services. This year, the online services are to be further streamlined to become more convenient and personalised.

In 2017, Muscovites are expected to use online services 300 million times.

This year, all the online services have moved to the Moscow Mayor’s website mos.ru. This portal can now be used to apply for a nursery place for a child, to report metre readings, to make a doctor’s appointment, to learn about fines and for many other municipal services.

No gaps in network coverage

There are several important events on the Moscow calendar in the next two years – the FIFA Confederations Cup, the World Cup, the presidential elections, the Moscow Duma elections and the Moscow mayoral elections. Moscow authorities plan to prepare the information infrastructure and provide overall good quality network coverage in the run up to these events.

This year, mobile apps for government services will be actively promoted, along with chatbots and social networks profile integration.

The city’s Wi-Fi services will continue to expand to include social facilities such as schools, nurseries, out-patient clinics, hospitals, government services centres and so on.

Moscow among top ten

The Russian capital is among the world’s top ten cities in its development of IT and communications. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Moscow is the world’s second leading city in the number, functions and variety of IT systems in the city’s government.

Moscow is also a leader in introduced smart technologies in the healthcare “infrastructure and management” section. The Russian capital ranks second in internet access and is among the top ten cities for the fixed line broadband speed, which is on average 35 megabits per second.

However, Moscow is in the third place in terms of introducing smart technologies in its cooperation with residents, lagging behind London and New York.

The Russian capital is helping to shape global trends in urban informatisation. The city’s Wi-Fi network inside the Garden Ring is the best infrastructure project, according to Global CIO. The “Learn About Moscow” special project has been included into the iF Design Award catalogue of the world’s best design projects.

Moscow has also made it to the finals of the World Smart City Awards, while the Moscow Mayor’s official portal mos.ru has won the RU.net prize in the ‘State and Society’ category.