New tool to help in better management of patients health-related data

“Attending outpatients is always a challenge. The doctor invariably has no record of the patient’s past medical condition, vaccination history or any idea about the individual’s allergy to drugs. If only these were available at the click of a button, it would help address health-related issues more responsibly,” said Rohanti, an intern at PSG Hospitals.

Stressing the need for better management of the patients health-related data - not just within the hospital but across the medical fraternity, pharmacies, labs and scan centres among others, Rohanti cited the case of a patient who had visited the hospital some months ago complaining of stomach ailment.

“We suggested some tests; the patient had it done elsewhere but this report was not shared with us. When she came back with some other problem recently, she could neither recall the medicines she took nor her old file number (wherein, we had asked her to take some tests).

“If only the treatment history was readily available, it would have helped solve a number of problems,” the intern said, adding “the existing system has very little room for portability of patient information between healthcare faciltiies, let alone between states”.

“We - myself, Dayanand and Kasinath (all interns) - decided to address this by mooting a system that would integrate the patient information from anywhere, anytime. We conceived a tool called VAIDHIA - “Visionary Aadhaar Integrated Digitalised Health Information Access”, by linking the individual’s identity with his/her Aadhar number.

“Linking Aadhar to the patients health records may not be new, but VAIDHIA helps integrate not only healthcare providing set-ups but also their adjuvants such as pharmacies and laboratories. It also provides for validating healthcare professionals and sequential follow-up of the patient irrespective of geography or a consulting physician,” she explained and said that those without an Aadhar could also be brought on board by providing a temporary identification.

The trio have, with the help of engineering students - Pragadish and Prakash - developed a prototype of VAIDHIA. “The preparatory phase of this project is almost over. We want to present it to the Government so that every hospital/clinic, dispensary, rural health centre can be brought into this network. We have also developed the prototype of an off-web application,” Rohanti said.

VAIDHIA, the interns perceive could be a game changer in the management of healthcare related data.

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