Best Practices for Successful IT Transformation in Hospitals

The healthcare industry, particularly hospitals, managed care groups and clinics catering to chronic illnesses are undergoing a profound transformation, thanks to the advancements in Technology including Automation Technologies and Artificial Intelligence. 

 

These technologies are not just enhancing existing treatment protocols and care processes; they're redefining the way hospitals and doctors operate, treat patients,speed up recovery and prevent health risks.

Embarking on an IT transformation journey is essential for modern healthcare institutions seeking to stay competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. To mitigate risks and maximize the benefits, consider these best practices, with simple examples to illustrate each point:

1. Seek Incremental Progress

Breaking down large transformation projects into smaller, manageable phases can significantly reduce complexity. For example, instead of overhauling an entire electronic health record (EHR) system at once, start by digitizing patient intake forms. This allows for early wins, creates organizational momentum, and enables continuous assessment and adjustment.

2. Ensure Strong Management

Robust program management frameworks are crucial for overseeing and guiding the transformation process. 

Imagine a hospital managing a facility-wide IT upgrade. By using a strong program management framework, they can ensure each department's needs are met, resources are efficiently allocated, and timelines are adhered to, avoiding project delays and budget overruns.

3. Redesign from scratch

Adopting a design which allows for a complete redesign of products and processes. For example, a hospital could design a new patient management system from scratch, rather than trying to patch and adapt their outdated database. This method helps organizations move away from legacy systems and create more efficient and modern solutions.

4. Create a Culture of Innovation

Fostering a culture of innovation within the organization is vital. For instance, a healthcare system could set up an innovation lab where employees can experiment with new technologies like telemedicine platforms or AI-driven diagnostic tools. This encourages continuous adaptation and integration of new technological advances.

5. Aligned Incentives for all stakeholders

Ensure that all stakeholders, including medical staff, IT departments, vendors, and integrators, have aligned incentives. A practical example would be aligning the goals of a software vendor with those of the hospital's IT department by structuring contracts based on performance and patient satisfaction metrics, ensuring both parties work towards common objectives.

6. Build internal capabilities

Invest in developing internal capabilities and forming strategic partnerships. For example, a healthcare organization could partner with a tech university to train their staff on the latest healthcare IT systems. This enhances the organization’s ability to innovate and implement new technologies effectively.

7. Technology Decoupling

Design technology architectures that minimize dependencies on specific vendors or technologies. For instance, a hospital could adopt a cloud-based solution that works with multiple providers, rather than relying on a single vendor. This approach enhances flexibility, reduces risk, and allows the organization to pivot more easily when necessary.

By adhering to these best practices and incorporating simple, relatable examples, healthcare and hospital administrators can navigate the complexities of IT transformation more effectively, ensuring they reap maximum benefits while minimizing potential pitfalls.

 

Whats right for you - an ELN or a LIMS ? Helping you choose

Digital platforms such as Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) and Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) have become indispensable tools for research scientists in almost all areas of research today. From sectors like Biotechnology to Water, from Criminal Forensics to Drug Development, these tools are now used by researchers and laboratory staff in Research Centers big and small. 

But what’s the difference between an ELN and a LIMS, and which one do you need?

A LIMS is a software system which manages all types of laboratory data including that of processes, instruments besides clinical data. A LIMS manages and automates workflows within the laboratory.

A good and carefully implemented LIMS can revolutionize lab operations by streamlining processes, improving workflow, and ensuring accuracy. With features like sample tracking, data analysis, and reporting.

An ELN is a digital platform that replaces traditional paper-based notebooks and generic databases to record, organize, and manage experiment data in a lab setting.

They are designed to enhance productivity and ensure data accuracy through customizable workflows and standardized methodologies. 

 

Key Similarities between an ELN and LIMS System

Both ELN's and LIMS Systems

- Are Searchable

- Support Automation

- Enable Multi user collaboration

- Support multi-system collaboration

- Help bring about Consistency in processes

- Have Audit trails and help meet regulatory requirements 

 

Key differences between an ELN and LIMS system

ELNs focus on handling the documentation of experiments. They serve a variety of purposes like creation of reusable experiment templates, supporting both free-form and structured note-taking, and generating bespoke data reports.

On the other hand, LIMS solutions are designed to eliminate errors caused by manual processes of samples. They do this by managing and automating workflows within a laboratory. They are used for monitoring the daily processes within the lab itself, including managing samples, workflows, materials, instruments and inventory. A LIMS is a complex multi user system.

A good and carefully implemented LIMS can revolutionize lab operations by streamlining processes, improving workflow, and ensuring accuracy. With features like sample tracking, data analysis, and reporting.

Core Features in a LIMS

- Test and Sample Master Management

- Test Entry and Test Report Templates

- Sample Tracking and Management

- Data Management and Analysis

- Instrument Integration and Automation

- Quality Control and Assurance

Core Features in an ELN

- Lab Notebook Templates

- Data Link and Connection Management

- Data Management and Analysis

- Multi User Collaboration

Deciding factors?

ELN software serves as a digital platform for experiment documentation, data entry, and collaboration. It streamlines data management, enables real-time collaboration, and enhances productivity by providing researchers with a digital workspace to record and share scientific findings.

LIMS software focuses on managing laboratory workflows, sample tracking, and data organization. It streamlines daily lab operations to enhance overall efficiency while supporting data integrity and compliance with industry standards

Why is India Facing a 2nd Wave of the Corona Virus

Till a few months back, we both were in awe of how our country had achieved remarkable control over the spread of Covid-19, across the nation. While a majority of the world was battling a 2nd wave of the virus, Indians had shown remarkable restraint and followed protocols for months on end. Something I have never experienced in our great country in my lifetime. This resulting in the divine union of central government directives with state government policy-making and bureaucratic action and departmental rule-making and the public following the rules, as well people helping the authorities enforce the rules by others.

Wow! This utopian behavior, was instrumental in India achieving among the best metrics in the world, in terms of how the fight with Covid is being measured. i.e. No of cases, No of active cases, The recovery rate, etc.

And then we as a country seem to have performed the hara-kiri that our cricket teams of the '80s and 90's were well known for. Before we had won the match, we started celebrating the victory, and seem to have lost the game. We didn't wait till Covid was completely under control. We started dismantling the specially created Covid Centers. We took our families to the malls and did not care about spraying sanitizers, before and after each interaction with something from outside our controlled environment. We started unmasking at will within our buildings and even at the Kirana stores. We started flying and driving around the country without masks and frolicking on the beaches of Goa. Our house parties were back on, and we destroyed the controlled zone that all India had worked so hard to become over a whole year. All, in less than a couple of months. And so it's back, worse than ever before, crippling our economy, our spirit, and making us feel bleak about the future. Except for this time, it doesn't look like everyone wants to tackle it together anymore.

The center and the states don't seem to get along. The media is pushing up the pitch and the amplitude of the hyperbole. Strangely, vaccines seem to be running out. People are still not masking up. Many are demonstrating utter and complete stupidity with regards to bending the rules. Construction sites are working in full sway as if there is no covid in this world. Watchmen in buildings aren't sure if they should let delivery in or collect them at the gate, so they do nothing. And the poor Kirana-wala is feeling weird about asking the people coming to his shop to mask up again. My neighboring Kirana-wala told me he is not done arguing with customers who are say "khaasi pehle nahin hui kya" (Translates to "Haven't you had a cold before?") Sounds like March 2020 again!

We both decided to formally put down our reasons for what has brought us to this stage. Policymakers must not let this happen again

1. The single biggest factor for the wave having arrived is how we have behaved in the recent past. 

• People became complacent as the virus numbers fell. There was less social distancing, less effective usage of masks, and much more intermingling. 
• The government helped create this complacency by changing the message they were spreading across the nation. Earlier it "Lets fight Covid together" and then in early 2021 we started hearing "We have the best recovery numbers, which within a short period started sounding like We have beaten Covid", and many Indians started hearing this as "We are invincible"
• Even once the cases started to rise, people did not take it seriously as they believed the virus was already conquered given the vaccine roll-out happening in the background.
• Teenagers and early twenties are a big factor in the spread this time. Many were unaffected by the last surge but the mutated strains affecting their age groups, coupled with the fact that these age groups in India at least are more likely to participate in social events and less likely to follow norms completely gave rise to a larger number of cases. 

2. Mutating Strains:

• The nCov Virus can mutate quickly. This gives rise to multiple strains with differing characteristics. The strains doing the most damage are the ones where mutations allow for faster transmission of the virus. The second wave is mainly made up because of such slightly mutated strains which are harder to contain.
• A new variant, called B.1.617, was initially detected in India with two mutations -- the E484Q and L452R. It was first reported late last year by a scientist in India and is the chief variant spreading in India which is highly contagious. It is also highly likely to evade the immunity provided by vaccines.
• The Current strains affect a wider range of age groups. There is a larger number of cases, this time around, of children, teenagers, and pregnant mothers than in the previous wave. Hence a larger population is susceptible. 
• The current strains though less damaging are highly contagious. The virus travels further and faster instead of causing more damage to the host. One of the reasons why Ebola does not travel far is its genetic makeup causes a very high and quick kill rate of the host, meaning if a limited number of hosts are contained it cannot travel very far as the host itself dies if not cured. This spread puts a lot of pressure on the public health infrastructure, crippling it beyond a point.
• India was not sequencing enough SARS-COV2 genomes till late Feb 2021. Ref: https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/india-sars-cov-2-genome-sequencing-roadblocks-resources-b117-n440k-variants/ and https://science.thewire.in/health/insacog-ccmb-igib-novel-coronavirus-variants-genome-sequencing-covid-19-surge/

3. The Vaccine rollout:

• The ability to deliver a large number of vaccines in time and with proper delivery mechanisms is not yet perfect. There is scope for the production to be increased, and the delivery mechanisms improved. 
• The fact that 2 doses are needed a few months apart for full efficacy gives the chance for the virus to take the person down in the long interim period. This interim period should have been defined as a period for vaccine takers to be extra careful.
• The virus efficacy was never fully understood, and that the vaccine does not prevent the person infected from still being a carrier is still unknown to most.

4. Policy Changes 

• Policy changes allowed weddings and parties to be carried out with an increase in the number of people allowed. It became impossible to control the social distancing protocols at these large events, and they eventually became super spreaders. The increase in Weddings, Parties, Election campaigns, etc went on unabated as restrictions were lifted just as the strains became harder to contain.
• There is a distinct delay between policy change (Begin Again Initiative by the government) such as allowing opening of businesses or removing restrictions on gathering and movement of people to when these translate into numbers in COVID-19 analytics. An increase in the number of COVID-19 cases or admissions or even deaths is not seen immediately within the week or even 2 weeks but much later. The delay is much larger as the spread initially is limited to smaller circles but due to spreader events and clusters forming suddenly rise exponentially. So policy changes in the November-December period showed up as a sudden surge from February onwards, as policy change led to behavior change was fed back to appear in the population-level data.

 

This article is jointly authored by Aditya Patkar and Nrip Nihalani

 

• 
  

In conversation with Aditya Patkar and Nrip Nihalani - Business Evangelist of India - Feature on Forbes India and B1TV

Healthcare is currently one of the most dynamic sectors witnessing rapid changes. 

In this feature  Nrip Nihalani and Aditya Patkar talk with Broadcast1 

• about Plus91's journey over the past decade, 
• about changing healthcare and being an integral part of the rise of digital healthcare 
• and the crucial role Plus91 plays in the future of digital health. 

Includes our work on helping Healthcare organizations adopt digital tools, Predicting Epidemics, Creating and open culture and moving healthcare forward. Do Watch!

 

Here is a link to the feature - Business Evangelists of India

Basic Computer Security for Doctors

Computer Viruses are evil. Period... They are the biggest reason why those new to technology don't use more of it. Viruses cause computers to behave sluggishly, randomly and sometimes illegally.

Here we have put together a Simple Presentation about Computer Security and Anti Viruses keeping in mind health professionals. In this presentation we go through Common PC Security Issues and explain what causes them.

We then look at what can one do to Protect their computers. This includes Definitions, Educational Content, Precautionary Steps, Options of Complete Solutions and a Simple tutorial on How to use a popular Free Antivirus.

Please help us with your feedback in the comments section below or email us directly.

Basic Computer Security for Doctors

View more presentations from Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Healthcare Get Started With Twitter

Twitter is a Social Network where users send and read short messages of upto 140 characters.

Twitter is a Cross between Text messaging, Blogging and Instant Messaging and is called the ‘SMS’ of the Internet.

This is a Simple starter guide for Healthcare Professionals to get started with Twitter 

Healthcare Get Started With Twitter

View more presentations from Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

How can low cost SMS' be used effectively by clinics and hospitals

Nowadays most people consider SMS's as the most convenient form of keeping in touch with the people around them. It is no surprise then that the simple SMS has been found to be the most liked feature on mobile phones. An affordable option for keeping in touch, using SMS's can help healthcare immensely.

Some simple ways by which use of SMS's helps clinics and hospitals provide better patient care:

- Reminding Patients regarding Appointments and Lab Tests.

- Infant immunization alerts for parents

- Blood donor information and alerts

- Medication Alerts for Patients

- Diet and Exercise Alerts to ensure adherence for Patients

- Health Insurance claims update

- Messages to wish discharged patients

- Instant provision of information 24/7 via a 2 way SMS service

By using SMS Messaging effectively, clinics and hospitals can also improve internal productivity and tighten their internal workflows. Ways in which SMS Messaging helps the Internal Productivity of clinics and hospitals:

- Daily provision of Stock related information and special alerts on insufficient stock of items allows store managers and pharmacies to keep on top of their inventory

- Alert Messages to inform Technicians of maintenance Schedules

- Regular Shift wise schedules to staff

- Daily Message with Summary of financials to management staff

- Instant message to duty staff in case of emergencies

- Message to confirm appointment with a Doctors, Radiologists, Pathologists and Dentists

- End of day consultation summary
- Reminders for Regulatory Reports like PNDT

Website Features Which Increase The Patient Satisfaction Index

A large part of managing a patient over a long period of time is communicating with the patient. All old (follow up) cases in medical practices have niche requirements and expectations from their doctors. A satisfied patient is a doctor’s most powerful marketing asset. Healthcare professionals should strive to provide all old (follow up) cases with special features to improve quality of service, which in turn will increase the Patient Satisfaction Index.

A well 'endowed' medical website allows doctors to assist patients in their day-to-day living by providing timely solutions for all their health queries even after a visit. For a patient, this continued access to expert medical advice via simple online tools is one of the most cherished features of any e-practice.

Despite best efforts, many patients make errors while following medical advice. Many times, follow-up patients have new queries they wish they could simply share with their doctors. A large number of patients also do not ask new questions just because they don’t want to look stupid in front of their doctors! These patients are often unsure of the importance of their queries and generally procrastinate visiting their doctors for answers. Sometimes new complaints crop up which may or may not affect the ongoing medical management. The internet, via a medical website, allows doctors to clarify many such small doubts these patients face while following medical advice. A timely word of advice can save these patients a whole lot of pain, literally and figuratively. Important issues which may arise during such advice can be solved by arranging for a new visit.

There are a number of ways medical websites and integrated web 2.0 tools can be used to help doctors improve patient-doctor communications and thus decrease the morbidity among patients. Let’s look at three such applications:




The Embedded Form:
Medical websites allow all registered members (i.e. follow-up cases) to access some parts of the website which are meant only for them. A simple form is embedded within this secure area through which a follow-up patient can ask a question. These questions are then directed to the doctor’s email address. The doctor can answer such questions securely via email or even ask the patient to book an appointment if required. Ideally, doctors should create an email id purely for answering queries of follow up cases. This will help in segmenting all electronic medical communications between doctors and patients. All such queries are also automatically added to electronic medical record of that patient.



Chat Widgets:
Chatting on the internet is something most patients are comfortable with. Medical websites can have widgets which allow patients to directly chat with the doctor or the doctor’s representative. This is a common and simple to add functionality within any medical website. Patients can be given pre-decided timings (say, 9 p.m - 10 p.m on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) when the doctor shall be available for the chat. Such chat transcripts can then be appended to the electronic medical record of the concerned patient. More people can be added to chats so as to allow group discussions (e.g: Friday evening hour long chat session for all Pregnant women, in case of gynae practices).



Facebook Groups and Video Chat:
After email, Facebook is the most commonly used online platform for communications. Doctors can easily use this platform (by forming closed groups) for answering some of the common queries by their patients. All follow up patients who share their primary email id can be added to specific closed groups on Facebook. These patients can post their queries on the group wall (which is not public and viewable only by group members) or send it as a direct message. Answers which have general significance for all patients can be posted on the group wall (e.g.: I am taking Metoprolol XL 50 mg once daily for my hypertension. I am scheduled for a tooth extraction next week. What precautions should I take? ). Personal queries can be answered via direct messaging. Urgent and important issues can be simply escalated to a telephonic conversation. Over time, such a Facebook group shall mature into a powerful resource for all new members. Questions which require visual inputs (like appearance of rashes or swelling on hands and feet) can be handled by using Video chat within Facebook. Important advice can be reinforced by typing it into the chat area so as to create a transcript document of the encounter. There are medical social media guidelines published by many international organizations which can be followed for all such patient-doctor communications on Facebook.

Doctors can also use Skype and payment gateways like PayPal to organize revenue generating e-visits by follow-up cases who find it difficult to physically visit the clinic premises at regular intervals. This is especially the case with geriatric and physically challenged patients. For more such innovative medical uses of the internet, kindly write to a.patkar@plus91.in or visit www.websitesfordoctors.in

Online Health Communities : Using IT to facilitate Information Therapy

For years, patients have liked to work in groups, to support each other, to help themselves cope with illnesses which their near and dear ones don’t understand, to seek advice from others who have similar ailments. 

Bringing people together in collaborative dialogue to explore social conditions that are the major influences of health and illness generates deeper collective awareness and community-driven action.

Since Individuals don’t see their lives partitioned into an online and offline world, Online communities should be given as much value as offline ones. A variety of Online Communities must come up for connecting patients quickly and privately with others who share similar health experiences. A fantastic example of one such community is Patients Like Me

Technology today exists not only in the form of created online communities but also online community frameworks; These allow just about anyone with an idea for a group or community to set up an online network, full with video and audio chats, whiteboarding, discussion forums and groups and all the other good stuff.

This helps create an integrated digital ecosystem which simultaneously addresses both individual and social dimensions of health. In effect this

-- Allows Patients to engage with each other

-- Allows Providers to engage with this medium

This is the 5th Article in a series of Articles on Using IT to facilitate Information Therapy by Nrip Nihalani and Aditya Patkar . 

Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

http://www.plus91.in

http://www.plus91online.com

http://www.twitter.com/plus91

Medical Practices Planning Websites Need 8 Answers Ready

All Top Websites should concentrate on a few things; Appearance, Content, Functionality, Ease of Usability and Search Engine Optimization. Medical websites are no different. They are just more focused. So once the basics of design and technology are taken care of, Medical websites need much more than form to rise to the top. Before you jump into the online world for reputation management and brand enhancement, all medical professionals and practices need to ask themselves some questions first. To focus your medical website for the right audience, you need to have these 8 answers ready when you plan your digital excursions:

1) What are the Three Top adjectives that describe your practice and Three Top services you provide:
All medical practices have some USP that distinguishes them. You should have yours defined before you create an online presence.

2) Who is your competition:
You are the best judge of your own competition. That’s where your patients go to when they don’t come to you. The same goes for the patients looking for Doctors online.

3) Which medical websites do you appreciate:
Your affiliations online decide your digital brand. Choose some idols of online medical presence and follow their best practices. Always link to and comment on good quality content.

4) Is there anything you don't want on your web site:
Your aversions decide you as much as your affiliations. Have a clear brand strategy for your professional appearance online.

5) What do you want visitors to do when they get to your site:
Have a clear navigation plan for your visitors and decide where you want them to finally land up on your website.

6) How do you want the web site to help your practice:
Know what you want to do and why you are doing it.

7) Do you have a collection of all digital media you might have created over the past 5 years:
PowerPoint slides, videos, text articles or posts online are good resources for high quality medical websites. A regularly updated website will always do better for your brand than an outdated one.

8) Do you plan to delegate people for managing your complete online presence via social media and PR:
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and community platforms are the crux of an online presence. You need skilled people managing these channels for you 24/7/365. That’s a long term question ideally decided when you start a website.

Websites For Doctors allows you to create high quality websites by a simple template based process. You can check some examples here.
• Ankur Fertility Center
• Om Pathology Lab
• Dr Manoj Pradhan's Athena Heart Care Clinic

You can contact us here.

Five Free Simple Google Tools For Doctors

Digital technology has done a lot to change healthcare over the past 20 years. And Google is the biggest influence on the web over the past 14 years of the internet. Their “Do No Evil” ‘philosophy’ has given us a whole stable of free and easy to use tools which can make all work easier and better.

Google's premier patient offering, Google Health was quietly buried. There have been no comparable Google tools for doctors. Their Raison d'être, the Google search has long been a much maligned tool for medical professionals. But there is lots more a doctor can do with free Google tools. Let’s take a look at *Five Free Simple Google Tools For Doctors.*


1) Gmail

This is the most useful service ever by Google, barring Google Search. And you can have more of it! You can use Gmail to create 2 (or more) free accounts. So you can create one personal and another public email address for your medical practice. Eg: one can be *dr.nirmal@gmail.com* and another
*neuromumbai911@gmail.com*. By going to settings, you can then set to import your other email account into any one primary gmail account.

You can also enable ‘*multiple inboxes*’ via Labs subtab in mail settings, allowing you to receive neatly segmented mails. Check this video

You can reply by your choice of account, enabling you to keep your personal and professional emails separated by different accounts, yet accessible and answerable from one single account. Here’s a detailed screenshot enhanced post about this feature on MakeTech easier. Read this Gmail tutorial for lots more info on these features.

Websites for Doctors by Plus91 lets you leverage on Google’s email offering creating social media profiles for you and letting you use your own personalized email ids.

Eg. drrajan@ivfinindia.in (www.ivfinindia.in)

2) Google Alerts

If there are certain terms you want to follow on Google and receive any new mentions directly to your email inbox, create a Google Alert. Fill in the term you need to follow, like ‘*neurology India news’* or ‘*dr. nirmal surya’* and set the frequency/type of alerts required. *Stay updated via email.*

You can also directly add such feeds to your website thus making it an information resource for others to see for a particular topic. E.g. PIPCDocs Website at the bottom left corner

3) Google Maps

Maps and *Places* allow you to mark your professional locations and timings on a map. Link this marked map within all your emails. Henceforth *all patients you email will see how to reach you easily via a map*, with additional info about consultation hours that you might want to share.

Every Website made by Plus91 comes with its own embedded Google maps to allow patients to easily track your location. E.g. Dr Karnik’s Clinics under the Location Tab

4) Google Scholar

You don’t need to always go to Pubmed for all your medical searches. Head to Google Scholar and do any *advanced search* (author, type, publication year and lots more filters). You will get More Results. You will search more medical databases. Try it
.
Plus91 has numerous initiatives to help promote your website using information tools like slideshare and Collaborative Online Journals like Indian Health Journal which will get you listed sooner than later.

5) Youtube Channel

Online videos are the most important medical info resource. But you don’t need to create videos to run a medical educational channel for your patients. Just create a channel by free login and start marking as *favourite the best medical education videos* you think might help your patients. Set channel settings to demonstrate your video favourites. You can also create multiple playlists on multiple topics and share them separately. Thus, you have a full blown video channel. Zero cost!

Now create your own You Tube channel with us at Websites for Doctors and upload videos of surgeries, patient testimonials and also a tour of your clinic.

We are planning another post on 5 Advanced and Free Google tools For Medical Practitioners. If you want to read that soon, *Share this*. If you need help with any of the above tools, comment below.

Article by: Dr Neelesh Bhandari and Co-edited by Aditya Patkar

Top 5 Free Medical Reference Apps For Android Smartphones

Use of Smartphones in healthcare is the latest intersection of Technology and Medicine. These inexpensive handheld computing devices allow users to download third party applications (apps) which can perform specialized tasks.

Most Smartphones run on either the Apple iPhone’s iOS or the Android OS and there are literally tens of thousands of medical apps available for either of these operating systems.

Clinical care is information intensive and some of the most commonly used mobile applications by physicians are for medical reference. By providing the latest evidence based medicine updates at the point-of-care, Smartphones are proving to be a very important tool for improving quality of healthcare. At Plus91, we have made a list of Top 5 Free Medical Reference Apps For Android Smartphones which physicians can use everyday for clinical purposes.

1) Medscape : Medscape is a popular web resource for physicians and other health professionals. This is a must have application which provides offline access to clinical reference tools like Drug Reference, Disease & Condition Reference and Treatment Guide, Procedures Reference, Tables & Protocols Reference and Drug Interaction Checker.

2) Skyscape Medical Resources : Founded by a group of Indian innovators, Skyscape is a worldwide leading service for providing trusted medical information via mobile devices. The Skyscape portal provides a number of free as well as paid medical apps for almost all specialties.

3) Epocrates : Epocrates is a publisher of mobile device software applications, designed to provide information about drugs to doctors and other health care professionals. The Epocrates application is the most popular of its kind providing a huge amount of information about pharmaceuticals. Regular use of this app can definitely help reduce errors in drug prescriptions.

4) PubMed Mobile : An uber useful app by the National Library of Medicine, PubMed Mobile allows the user to search its database with over 21 million citations for articles and journals, save articles and searches, view abstracts, and export selected abstracts and citations for future use. NLM also provides a number of other mobile optimized tools and apps. Check the NLM Mobile Gallery here.

5) WebMD : WebMD is the leading health information portal of the United States. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD. The free app provides access to information regarding health and health care, including a symptom checklist, pharmacy information and drugs information.

The following is a guest post by Dr Neelesh Bhandari.

Twitter Handle: @edrneelesh

EMR'S: PROVIDING INDIAN DOCTORS WITH AN EDGE: VOL 2

APPOINTMENT MANAGERS FOR EFFICIENT TIME MANAGEMENT

Managing time is a major issue for all professionals in today’s fast paced world. This is even more so for many doctors, especially those who work at multiple locations: Clinics, Hospitals and Medical centers. Workshops on effective time management are regularly organized at different financial and IT firms to help hard working professionals. Gyan is imparted on setting Alerts for Reminders, and To Dos for Task management and the importance of diaries, blackberries and calendar reminders is emphasized here. 

Physicians have a slightly bigger problem. Their schedules are majorly dependent on set appointments with patients. While they do have other areas of concern, the majority of their daily schedules are built around patient appointments. What complicates this for a consulting doctor is that every day he may have different visiting hours at different locations. This makes Time management even more crucial for Physicians. 

Effective Appointment Scheduling for Physicians thus becomes an extremely important activity, and many firms are trying to make an industry out of it alone. It makes more sense though to ensure that Appointment Scheduling is not taken up stand alone, but is an integral part of an EMR system. Add an effective Appointment Management Process to an EMR, and you have added a strong case with Physicians on adoption. 

The Appointment Management Process can be divided into 3 parts:

1.    Appointment Scheduling
2.    Scheduled Appointment Tracking
3.    Patient Visit
 

Mandatory Requirements for an Appointment Management System:

• It should allow for different mediums of Appointment Scheduling
• E.g. Via a Website, Via A Phone Call, Via SMS
• It should permit Rescheduling
• It should be able to handle Walk-In Patients
• Besides the process, the screens should be simple – Non IT friendly users should be able to easily use it
• Color Coded Entries: Pending, Completed, No Show, Bill Pending
• Point And Click with Minimum Data Entry
• Should be rigid enough to prevent Scheduling Errors
• Should Support Multiple Doctors and Multiple Specialties
• Maintain 2 Daily Calendar Views
• Appointment View for Front Desk staff, Online Portal
• Scheduled Visits View for Physicians

Appointment Management Workflow

Useful Features in an Appointment Manager which add value to the Appointment Workflow
 

A Good Appointment Manager allows appointments and available spots to be displayed across multiple locations ensuring quick coordination.
 

It has a visit calendar that showcases the status of the patient’s appointment right from the initial booking stage to the consultation and finally to the bill payments post check-up.
 

It contains Smart Customization features that help the staff and doctors to configure the appropriate time slots, visit options and default visit duration.
 

It offers Multiple Calendar Screens to View the Appointment Schedules Daily, Weekly and Month wise.
 

Sometimes patients forget appointments, which adversely affects the practice’s cash flow as well as adds Delays in the patients’ treatment. A Good Appointment Manager will offer automated appointment reminders built into the Appointment manager. This will help reduce No Shows as well as Reduce Confusions over time of Scheduled Appointments. These Reminders can be

• Email Reminders
• SMS Reminders
• Automated Phone Calls Reminding the Patients of the Scheduled Appointment

The control center of a successful medical practice is an EMR with an efficient and user-friendly scheduling system. It will help your practice run smoothly with increased productivity and optimum patient satisfaction.  

by Nrip Nihalani

Plus91 Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

http://www.plus91.in

http://www.plus91online.com

http://www.twitter.com/plus91

If you missed it here is a link to 


EMR'S: PROVIDING INDIAN DOCTORS WITH AN EDGE: Vol 1