The journey of a patient from home to hospital via a smart technology-enabled system can now be eased with a click of a button, said a Ministry of Health and Prevention spokesperson.
The integrated system run by various technology providers includes an electronic screen at home, telemedicine consulting, hospital appointments through robots, a hospital dashboard that gives a comprehensive view of all ministry hospitals across the country and a ‘Health Mirror’ service at hospitals.
Patients wanting to be part of this system would need to register with the ministry which would install the electronic screen at their home.
Explaining the system which will be launched soon in hospitals and health centres of the ministry, Mubaraka Mubarak Ali Ebrahim, Director of Health Information Systems at the ministry, told Gulf News at the Ministry of Health pavilion at the ongoing Arab Health 2017, “We will be able to keep in touch with the patient and monitor his daily health through a smart screen. The patient needs to step on to a marked foot area and the screen will immediately transmit basic information about his weight, BMI and temperature which will be received by us at the hospital. The patient can then book an online appointment with our online physician. Telemedicine is our first line of consultation,” explained Ali Ebrahim.
Once the health specialist spots any anomaly in the patient’s health that requires hospitalisation, he can alert the hospital. “All hospitals will have an electronic display dashboard flashing critical information about patient occupancy region-wise, gender-wise, vacancies and so on, so that the patient can be sent directly to the closest hospital with a vacancy,” she said.
A robot can actually talk to the patient at the hospital reception, confirm the appointment and guide the patient. Another electronic device called Q-matic can immediately identify the patient through either the Emirates ID scan, the mobile registration or first impression detection like a photograph. This will make admissions quicker and save crucial time for the sick, she said.
Once the patient is admitted, his whole body can be scanned through the Health Mirror service. “The Health Mirror will comprehensively scan the body and provide information of weight, height, BMI, body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar, bone density, oxygen saturation and help the doctor to spot any anomaly immediately, saving time in diagnosis,” said Ali Ebrahim.
Currently, the device would be placed in one of the health centres but will soon be made available in all hospitals. “We want the journey of the patient from home to hospital to be seamless and these smart solutions will change the face of patient-hospital interaction,” she said.
Source: https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/story/Health_Mirror_system_to_be_launched_soon-GN_01022017_020254/