FEATURE DIGITAL HEALTHCARE 011 GOING DIGITAL By: Dr. Anil Bhaya, Director, Advanced Diagnostics & Digital Healthcare, ApolloBramwell Hospital, Moka, Mauritius
s a healthcare professional do you remember? When paper medical records were the method of choice for capturing a patient’s course of illness and care? When errors in prescriptions occurred – wrong patient/ wrong file/wrong medication/wrong dosage? When diagnostic results went missing? When an x-ray film took more than 30 minutes to reach the ICU? At re-admission, previous medical records/discharge summaries were not available?
A
Now imagine a future where hospitals have no paper case notes or files: A patient’s medical condition is captured via intelligent contest aware devices and sent directly to central computer systems. Information such as x-ray’s, labs, medication history and drug allergies are also available at
your fingertips, and at computers by the bedside. This means less time spent on hunting/tracking information and more time for doctors and nurses to provide better patient care Nursing staff is able to retrieve and collate clinical information for review by clinicians. Savings could be up to US$750,000 per ward/year (US national survey 2008-2009) Up-to-date clinical information System alerts for abnormal results Avoiding duplicate medication orders and drug-to-allergy information.
GOING DIGITAL Medical innovations have been the norm rather than exception – ancient Egyptians performed surgery back in 2750 BC and Romans developed medical tools such as forceps and surgical needles. Modern medicine has been revolutionized by antibiotics, vaccines and heart stents – all marvels of bio-technology. Information and communication technology
in comparison was slow to impact healthcare partly due to infrastructure constraints but more so due to challenges in change management. Industry leaders argue that a revolution is already on – ‘transforming biology from a discovery science to an informational science’. In medicine this essentially means the digitization of medical records and the establishment of an intelligent network for sharing these records. The electronic medical/health records serve as searchable databases
providing a ‘smart grid’ for medicine that will hopefully not only improve clinical practice but also help revive drug research. Devices and diagnostics have already gone/are going digital – pushing the boundaries of telemedicine and telehealth – personal home care devices with remote monitoring and smart pills. Access to Information & Communication Technology (ICT) has become a basic need – mobile and fixed broadband communication is
“Digital health enables effective patient management, increased efficiency through remote diagnosis and reductions in management and treatment costs”
changing the world. Currently there are five billion mobile subscriptions worldwide. The deployment of broadband is accelerating the deployment of digital healthcare. Patients are likely to benefit due to timely and more precise
diagnosis. Digital health may help empower patients to play a bigger IN SHORT
Digital health can help empower patients to play a bigger role in their own care and facilitate progressive primary care The drawbacks of digital healthcare include new privacy regulations, regulatory compliance, infrastructure capital cost, and integrations of various technologies Going digital can save each ward US$750,000/year, and comes with environmental benefits too.
TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE
www.lifesciencesmagazines.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56