INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
20 JULY 2019 [ ehealth.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Healthcare Innovations in Asia and the Middle East
• IT has revolutionised the whole paradigm of
patient care. Today, small and large healthcare
setups are largely dependent on appointment
booking platforms which have replaced the
conventional calling systems. It saves time
and cost both to hospitals and the patients.
Moreover, IT proves its worth in minimising
human efforts, reducing potential errors and
delay of conventional calling systems.
• Lead management through software has helped
track the inflow of patients and thereby provides
a wide opportunity for data analysis.
• The innovation approach of such technology
has largely been patient centric. Patients
are provided all the required attention and
constantly motivated as well to seek support.
• Technology like patient queue management systematically manages the patient inflow to a
doctor.
• Quick exchange of information between doctor /
hospital and the patient, saves time and cost for
both the sides.
• Patients who are staying miles away can now
have their first consultation with the doctor
without even meeting him personally. This
innovative approach holds importance in
bringing down the first visit apprehensions being
faced by few patients to some extent.
• Hospitals have designed their own personalised
apps to help patients get connected easily.
These apps not only contain all the information
of organiation / hospital but also have a lot of
patient education content, validated by the
experts in the field. Rainbow Hospitals: Ensuring Smart
Care via IT-Enabled Solutions
Neeraj Lal
VP and Cluster Head of Rainbow
Children’s Hospital, BengaluruSome of the benefits of IT include
patient appointment scheduling, queue
management in OPDs, electronic
maintenance of records, in built patient
education tools in devices, and remote
access of patients’ records.
The use of information system
to analyse the wait time, study the
cost, easy access of patient records,
MIS reports in Business analysis, has
transformed the way organisations are
dealing with their businesses. IT ENABLES TO MAINTAIN ROBUST
DIGITAL RECORDS
IT has been very useful in the
maintenance of patient records.
Digitalising records has helped in
saving the storage space and thereby
retrieval has been made easy.
These digital records are safe
unlike the conventional paper records
which are susceptible to physical
damages.
Digital records can be accessed
and shared remotely. The lab andT
here has been an increased
use of information technology
across fields in enhancing
productivity, cost efficency and
streamlining the processes. In
healthcare, IT has proved to be an
important tool to improve patient
care, contain cost, minimise errors,
and standardise the protocols.radiology reports can also be
scanned and stored. There are newer
technology to store the radiology
reports in required resolution.
Follow ups have been made more
systematic by setting up of timely
notifications to the patient and the
doctor or hospital.
This has been very useful in cases
where patients are asked for short
interval follow up visits such as in
vaccinations, chemotherapy, post-
surgery follow ups, physiotherapy,
study of slowly progressing chronic
ailments etc.
PACS--Picture archiving and
communications system is a network
of computers used by radiology
departments which replaces film with
electronically stored and displayed
digital images. This uses a server to
store and allow facile access to high-
quality radiologic images, including
conventional films, CT, MRI, PET
scans and other medical images over
a network.Patient care and management through information technology: