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T
he use of information the revolution in the IT world. Blue, also known as Al Mahary
EVENTS 2 and communication Libya is located in North- hotel. This hotel stands proudly
e-Management Conference at Libya 2 technology in general ern Africa and its economy in a prime location on the
and electronic management depends upon revenues from beautiful beach of the historic
Tech Bytes 4 in particular, has led to fun- the oil sector, contributing to city of Tripoli. Arrangements
damental changes in the way about one-quarter of the GDP. were made for translation to/
A need for Automation in Healthcare? 4 the services are delivered. This Combined with a small popu- from Arabic/English language
has ensured administration in lation, this gives Libya one of during the sessions.
Paradigm shift in Indian Healthcare 6
more efficient and transparent the highest per capita GDPs in The aim was to disseminate
News Clips 8 manner and in supporting the Africa. The conference repre- the culture of information and
comprehensive development sented Libya’s initiatives in the communication technology
of the society at the grass root information technology
level. Under the auspices of revolution, emphasizing IAMI was represented by Dr.
Col Muammer Al Gadhafi its place on the map of Sanjeev Sood who spoke on
and within the values & prin- the world of informa-
JULY 2010 • VOLUME I • ISSUE 2 ‘ICT as an enabler in delivery of
publications@medicalinformatics.org.in ciples of the First of September tion technology in the
revolution and the emblem twenty first century. quality healthcare’ and Mr. Ajit
EXECUTIVE EDITOR / Ms. Vasumathi Sriganesh
PRODUCTION EDITOR / Mr. Mandar Gori
of ‘for the sake of an effective As of now, Libya has Kumar, who was one of the key
COPY EDITOR / Dr Saurabh Bhatia electronic management for the minimal IT infrastruc- organizers for this international
TECHNICAL EDITORS/ Dr. Kavishwar Wagholikar,
Jamahiriya society, Al-Madina ture in place, and wishes
Dr. Naresh Yallapragada conference.
NEWS EDITOR / Dr. R. Prajeesh multimedia center orga- to take giant strides in
DESIGN & TECHNICAL / Dr. Amit Chatterjee, SM nized ‘The first International this direction to achieve
www.iami.org.in Conference on Electronic Man- high IT penetration and and investigate implementa-
agement’ from the 1st to 4th of provide IT enabled governance tion mechanism for effective
June 2010. The conference was to its citizens. The event was management for the Jamahiriya
considered a major step in the managed by Al Madina Multi- (masses). It was attended by
Jamahiryia’s endeavor to follow media Centre at hotel Radisson about 200 delegates from
W
hereas a negative automated medical records are away from patient thus reduc- tools are the bread and butter
answer to this ‘good to have’. Decision support ing the time he could have spent for the Quality department.
question would put systems (CDSS) and compli- with the patient. Overall, this Objective records with transpar-
a question mark on the raison ant nursing are also desirable group gains comparatively less ency help them keep stringent
d’être of IMIA and IAMI, (reduced failures, reduced law- from automation. checks on processes and aid cer-
there is a significant percent- suits). They are not tifications like NABH & JCI.
age of healthcare workers who particularly enthusias- Contradictory to popular Significantly, this department’s
would think for a minute before tic about automation of contribution to creating com-
belief, computerized records
answering it. The perception inventories, Coding and puterized records is low but it
of the need for automation Medical records (MR), leave nurses with less time to reaps huge benefit in compari-
strongly depends upon how bio-medical engineer- spend with patients son.
that department is interpreting ing etc. while billing
‘Automation’. For different roles practices are fairly watertight Stores, Front-office and sup- Hospital administration:
in hospital, automation brings even without full automation. port services: Hospital Administration is
in different meaning, different Lastly, most doctors resist the Inventories are mostly usually the consumer of records
benefits and different liabili- additional work they have to objective records which render created by various departments.
ties. Let’s have an overview of do to keep up their end of the themselves more amenable They gain significantly from
the need of automation keeping automation deal e.g. typing case to computerization bringing the objectivity, transparency,
in view the effort involved and records, entering prescriptions better accountability, trans- accurate record keeping and it
benefits realized. etc. parency and speeds up the helps them in maximizing the
work. Moreover, the software revenue through better insur-
Who needs automation? Paramedics & Nurses: for ADT, Billing and Stores ance claims and higher patient
Their liability quotient is are usually more user friendly, satisfaction. They are usually
Doctors: lower than that of doctors’ but robust and mature. The effort- the driving force behind auto-
For most doctors, responsibility to keep medical benefit ratio is well balanced mation but contribute least
records updated is higher. Con- here. towards creating records.
sequently, most see it as an Quality department:
TECH BYTES
Paradigm shift in Indian Healthcare
Introduction manage their health and
I
ndian Healthcare is going disease in the society
through a paradigm shift. as well. At the heart of
From a fragmented sector, all these networks is
it is moving towards being con- mostly either a Pharma-
solidated and organized. It is ceutical company or an
moving from a ‘Transaction Insurance company.
based Healthcare’ model to a These healthcare
‘Healthcare contract’. Large, networks seem to be
private hospitals in India are pushing the ‘single
turning into a network of encounter-based medi-
healthcare organizations. This cine’ to a more ‘holistic
network includes ‘Treatment patient-based medicine’
for Sickness’ and the ‘Wellness by providing all the ser-
Industry’. Clinic networks, vices in the network and
Lab networks and Pharmacy retaining the patient
chains are also emerging on the within the network
scene. The Government is also across the country.
catching up by modernizing its Therefore Healthcare India based Healthcare-IT mortar? Do these networks/
hospitals and by introducing Network is a very healthy trend systems provide the required chains have the requisite tech-
Public Private Partnerships. for India. However the emerg- support for running such a nology infrastructure in terms
Health Insurance is begin- ing healthcare networks cannot massive Healthcare Network. of software, hardware and IT
ning to follow patients even achieve their ‘ Enterprise Level networks? Is the budget being
after they leave the clinic and Digital Healthcare’ dream Technology allocated for the technology
some systems are emerging to without an integrated Health- Is technology catching up infrastructure? For a good IT
care-IT policy. Today very few at the same pace as brick and setup, Indian hospitals have to
NEWS CLIPS Smart Phone Application for Smart clothes offer emotional ECG on Blackberry mobiles
~Dr. R. Prajeesh Health Advice aid
Maestros Mediline Systems Limited in
Afridoctor is a mobile phone applica- Smart clothes developed by Barbara association with Vodafone announced
Robot guided knee replace- the launch of its mobile ECG applica-
tion designed and launched in South Layne from Concordia University in
ment surgeries Africa by Blueworld, a social media Canada and Janis Jefferies from Gold- tion for BlackBerry smartphones. The
company based in Cape Town. smiths College’s Digital Studios were mobile apps is created by Research In
Surgeons at a Scottish hospital are test- on display at the Congress of the Hu- Motion (RIM) the makers of Black-
ing out an operating technique using a Afridoctor works as pocket doctor and manities and Social Sciences held in Berry mobile.
robot to carry out knee replacement op- it offers a “snapdiagnosis” service, pa- Montreal from 28 May - 3 June.
erations as a part of clinical trial at the tients can send pictures of their ailment This application on mobile ECG called
NHS. Around 150 patients are enrolled to a panel of doctors who then contact The prototype garments created as part eUNO R 10 enables the doctors to re-
in this ongoing research which is being their patient with a diagnosis within 48 of an artistic project called Wearable motely monitor their patients. This tele-
conducted at Glasgow Royal Infirmary hours. The other features incorporated Absence monitor physiological states medicine device not only saves time of
collaboration between surgeons, bio- into the application include “find a doc- including temperature, breathing, gal- the doctors but also helps in early and
engineers and a US based health care tor” and “distress” as well as first aid tips vanic skin response and heart rate. The quick dignosis of the cardiac ailments.
company. and a symptom checker. clothes are connected via a smartphone
to a web based database that analyses This application is being tested by Car-
Images of the patient’s knee pre-loaded The “find a doctor” system uses Google the data to work out a person’s emotion- diologists at Nanavati Hospital, Mum-
onto a software controls the robot’s Maps to geo-locate local health services al state. The captured biological data is bai and is reported to have helped doc-
movements and the sensors placed on including doctors, hospitals and emer- used to trigger a response from the da- tors make quick diagnosis and initiate
the patient’s knee conveys the informa- gency clinics. The distress feature en- tabase previously created by the wearer. appropriate treatment in acute cases.
tion on the exact position. A display on ables users to contact a family member When the wearer is detected as being
a screen guides the operating surgeon or friend at the touch of a button. This in a particular emotional state, the da- Read more...
with an accuracy of within a millime- person will be notified of the phone’s tabase will send media to the clothes to
tre. The procedure is expected to cut re- location when the distress button is help try to change a person’s mood. Me-
covery times to a matter of days, saving HIMSS Virtual Conference
pressed. dia, including songs, words and images,
costs and improve the outcome of knee are then transmitted to the display and & Expo
replacements. Afridoctor developed for high-end mo- speakers in the clothes to calm a wearer
bile phones is supposedly the first per- or offer support. Smart clothes helping A two day virtual conference jointly
Read more... sonal mobile health clinic in the Afri- their wearers cope with the stresses of sponsored by the Postgraduate Institute
can continent but Blueworld is hoping modern life could soon be a reality. for Medicine was conducted by Health-
to strip it down so that the app can work care Information and Management
on less technologically savvy handsets. Read more... Systems Society (HIMSS) on 9th and
Read more... 10th June 2010. The HIMSS Virtual