Most patients at home, AIIMS docs to generate e-prescriptions

NEWDELHI: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi has developed a real-time telemedicine dashboard for the out patient departments (OPDs). With this, patients can access the teleconsultation facility and doctors can access test reports, conduct online classes and exams and generate e-prescription for patients.

OPD services resumed in the hospital last week after a break of almost three months due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

“We have an in-house team of computer programmers that worked tirelessly to develop this dashboard to suit the needs of tele-consultaion services that AIIMS is providing to its patients. The online registration system at the hospital is also integrated with this dashboard so all doctors can see their complete list of appointments for the day,” said Dr A Shariff, professor anatomy, chairman, telemedicine facility, AIIMS.

Through the new online registration system, a patient gets a username and password and a link to the video consult on the dashboard. For those patients who do not have an advanced phone, the audio consultation facility is also available on this dashboard.

There will be no online walk-in consultations unless the doctors specifically asks for it, and only those patients with a prior appointment will be added to the list.

Prescriptionsgeneratedonthe dashboard will be converted into a text message and sent to the patient’s phone.

The team tested the dashboard initially with OPDs of three departments— geriatrics, orthopaedics, and paediatric surgery, before expanding it to eight more departments on last Monday.

OPDs of about 11 departments are currently using the dashboard, and in next 10 days all the 45 departments will be moved to this tele-consultation module. AIIMS has nearly 45 departments, and runs scores of multispeciality clinics on a daily basis.

The dashboard is currently being evaluated for user feedback. From each department there is a doctor who will be a nodal member to put forward suggestions for improvement.

“It is currently being tested for any glitches; every feedback received is being carefully studies and efforts are being made to rectify the problem and modify the dashboard to make it easy to operate by all, including patients and staff,” said Vivek Gupta, associate professor, ophthalmology, and assisting faculty for managing the computer and telemedicine facilities.