CONNECTED CARE BEYOND THE HOSPITAL

Surgeries are taxing, complicated business. And precision is the key word. There is no scope for errors and that applies to pre- and post-surgical care too. Data shows that most deaths occurring due to a surgical intervention happen during the post-operative phase rather than during surgery. There are several reasons for this, including the inability of healthcare institutions to constantly monitor post-operative deterioration as well as patients’ inability to visit the healthcare center for post-operative followups.

Pre-anesthetic and post-operative records are maintained manually

Though most healthcare institutions have basic hospital management systems in place, most of the patient data is recorded manually. This data is often weaned from displays of multiple monitoring devices like vitals monitor, infusion pumps, and ventilators. More often than not, these devices do not talk to each other or to a central system.

Paper, paper everywhere

Ever noticed doctors, nurses, or other care-givers diligently noting down patient statistics in their files and notepads? Even though the healthcare industry is in the throes of digitization, there’s still a lot of paper doing the rounds. Eventually, the data from these physical sheets might be fed into an electronic system, but there is a high chance of error in that process.

Inability to monitor post-operative care remotely

While pre-operative care for some part happens within the premises of healthcare institutions, a large part of post-operative care needs to happen after the patient has physically left the institution. This becomes challenging since care-givers have little or no control over the process. This inability to closely monitor the post-operative care and take timely action not only leads to complexity when patients come back, but also in some cases ends up costing healthcare providers dearly in terms of follow-up procedures and costly settlements.

Finding the Real Problem

While integration of devices with the hospital management system seems like an obvious answer, we realized that the problem extended beyond backend integration. There was a communication gap between patients and care-givers which led to complications in post-operative care process. So we evolved the concept of ‘Forever Connected Care’.

Solution

We developed a system with the ability to maintain and record the pre-anesthetic checkup details electronically and also the capability to aggregate data from multiple machines and show all this on a single screen. The system visualizes real-time data from these devices, even if they are at a remote location. It also stores the electronic anaesthesia records for future diagnostics and creates reports for departmental statistics relevant to anaesthetic and surgical issues for audit purposes.

To solve the challenge of post-operative care, Infosys developed a post-operative Patient Monitoring System using wearable devices. We undertook end-to-end conceptualization and implementation, from requirement gathering to finding exact business problems to development and validation of the patient monitoring system. This includes:

  • Hardware, firmware, and software development and integration
  • Multimode RF module design — Bluetooth, GSM
  • Multi-variant design for in-hospital and in-home versions of the gateway
  • Hospital information systems integration
  • System testing within the hospital infrastructure

The Outcomes

  • Reduced patient risk by providing relevant electronic records during surgery, for future diagnostics and to create reports. This can be used to conduct valuable data analytics.
  • Reduced the need for physical visits for patients by remote monitoring, which can trigger real-time status, reminders, and SOS alert.
  • Ability to visualize the real-time data remotely and securely, providing anytime, anywhere care.
  • Scalable solution to interface with medical devices from any manufacturer, thereby protecting investments already made by healthcare institutions. No rip and replace required.
  • Easy accessibility and vitals reporting between patient and care providers, resulting in timely assurance and interventions, especially beneficial for post-operative patients and aged patients who need to minimize travel.
  • Making proactive need-based care available to people living in remote areas.