Philips brings virtual cardiology network to KSA
Royal Philips, a health technology company, has teamed up with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Saudi Arabia to provide a first-of-its-kind integrated cardiovascular information system (CVIS) across multiple facilities throughout the Kingdom.
Patient medical information will be available on demand at the point of care in each of the connected hospitals to help improve quality access to cardiology care managed by a network of specialists. The Philips CVIS includes advanced software technology and image analysis to simplify cardiovascular data management for cardiology departments to work more efficiently and accurately.
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the No.1 cause of death globally. They are also highly prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Cardiology is also one of the most complex areas of the hospital enterprise, with large quantities of data generated by various caregivers across multiple locations. By integrating disparate cardiology systems in the public MOH cardiac centers around the Kingdom, the Philips CVIS aims to reduce data entry, simplify access to test results generated in other departments and make it easier to acquire, analyze and share patient data.
The cardiology patient data information will be powered by Philips IntelliSpace Cardiovascular platform, featuring advanced archiving from the Philips Universal Data Manager (UDM) and advanced visualization from Philips IntelliSpace Portal. Seamless data sharing and connectivity between the hospitals will be managed by Philips Forcare, delivering information health exchange (IHE) interoperability.
“With a dedicated health care IT clinical informatics team and leadership in connected care, Philips brings a wealth of experience into the cardiology program of the MOH,” said Ozlem Fidanci, market leader Middle East and Turkey at Philips. “This collaboration named as Project Taji marks a significant step by the Ministry of Health toward Saudi Vision 2030 and the elevation of cardiology services across the Kingdom.”
The Taji Project will be implemented in Makkah, Jeddah, AlHofuf, Qassim, Jizan, Najran, Dammam and Arar. All these cities will be connected to the Ministry of Health in Riyadh to utilize telecardiology services among MOH cardiac centers.
“The primary use of tele-cardiology is to support primary care practitioners in the area of correct diagnosis, thus empowering them to manage cardiac patients with increased confidence. It also improves the clinical training of the average practitioner, by increasing the clinician’s level of knowledge at the primary level. This will equip GPs to offer better care and improve the overall health care system,” said Dr. Ahmed Balkhair, adviser to the vice minister and general supervisor of e-health programs and IT.
“The MoH tele-cardiology initiative helps build up an integrated cardiovascular information system (CVIS), cardiac picture archiving and communications system (CPACS), and an ECG data management system, all of which will enhance the efficiency of the cardiology workflow for the cardiologists and all users, and access to patient studies by authorized users,” said Dr. Mohammed K. Abdulaali, assistant deputy minister for hospital affairs.