GROWING up, Kamol Williams wanted nothing more than to enhance his country’s health-care system while pursuing a career in technology.

Uncertain of how he could merge his two passions, Williams was compelled to put aside his aspirations of venturing into the health-care system.

In 2017, he graduated from The University of the West Indies with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, still hoping for an opportunity to venture into health care.

His dream came true in 2019 when he applied for and was offered the role of programmer/analyst at the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW) in Kingston. Since then, he has been impacting health care by improving the information and communications technology used within the ministry.

Williams said that he is driven to make his mark in the health-care system in Jamaica to honour his late father, who passed away at one of the country’s hospitals because of a heart attack and complications from asthma.

“I want to [improve what exists] so that something like this does not happen again. Or, if it does, it is less frequently because certain measures would be in place to monitor things,” he said.

As a programmer, he was responsible for maintaining the system applications and software used and provided by the ministry until he was promoted to systems administrator early this year.

Now he ensures the MoHW’s networks and security are up to date and all servers are working. In addition to that, he leads a group of programmers to complete new projects, carry out maintenance and troubleshooting, and other fixes.

The young professional asserts that he has grown immensely in the three years he has been at the MoHW, especially given the exigencies of his job.

He argues that who he is today is incomparable to the person he was at the beginning of his sojourn.

“The experience, knowledge, and overall wisdom that I have gained from my time here have far exceeded what I thought would ever be possible,” the systems administrator noted.

He cited his contribution to customising a reporting software that is used nationally to record COVID-19 cases and vaccination numbers as one of the highlights of his career.

The experience was sweetened when he assumed one of two database transformation roles, managing the database for the MoHW’s vaccination project and ensuring that data is captured properly.

“The second thing was that I was on the front line at different health centres monitoring… the application that captures persons… vaccinated at the sites. It was interesting to see how the system captures this information and how health-care workers interacted with persons who came to get vaccinated,” he added.

Working during the novel coronavirus pandemic revealed the value that Williams can provide to the ministry and Jamaica, which has caused him to appreciate his role more.

He has pledged to continue to advance the health-care system using technology as the main tool.

Williams is one of Jamaica’s health-care heroes who were recognised in July, which was declared Healthcare Workers Appreciation Month.