Patients visiting the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology would soon be spared the need to carry their medical reports each time they come for a follow-up.
Moving towards digitisation of patient information, the institute is all set to make a significant contribution to public health care by adopting an integrated hospital management information system. Institute director K.B. Linge Gowda told The Hindu on Sunday that the patient-centric project was being taken up in association with the National Informatics Centre.
“Computerisation of patient information will not only benefit patients but also help us in collating data for research and academic activities,” he said.
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Estimated to cost Rs. 5 crore, the project also aims at enabling patients to get online appointments of doctors. The institute’s National Knowledge Network connectivity, that provides a unified high speed network backbone for all knowledge-related institutions in the country, could be used to take forward the computerisation project, he said.
At Kidwai, on an average 1,000 patients walk into the out-patient department every day. This includes 200 new cases. Last year, the institute saw 18,000 new patients and 2.60 lakh follow-up patients.
Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, another State-run specialty hospital, recently adopted a picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Under the system, all medical images including angiogram, ECG, ECHO, X-ray, CT scan and nuclear scan of patients are being archived for precise diagnosis and effective decision-making by doctors.
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Health Minister U.T. Khader said that under the proposed e-hospital scheme (announced in the recent budget), the department would adopt a similar integrated management information system in its hospitals.
“The idea is to make life easier for patients not only in the hospitals run by our department but also in the specialty hospitals that come under the Department of Medical Education,” he said.