KOCHI: Entertainment and business have been ruling the roost in the ‘App’ world, with digital applications fast becoming an essential part of life. Bringing healthcare to the digital network, a team of scientists and technologists have developed a mobile application that would provide patient-to-patient and patient-to-health provider (doctors, labs) interaction through smartphone.
The App ‘iDecide’ is a joint venture of Thrissur-based Olive Touch Healthcare Services Ltd, Finland-based Health Care Success and Entiresoft, an ITN company based at Technopark.
“The App can be downloaded free of cost. Subscribers and healthcare providers have to register by creating password-protected accounts. A unique feature of he App is its privacy - patients become managers of their database and sharing of data is completely at the discretion of patients. iDecide has a web version too. Doctors and lab technicians can upload documents, which the user would access through smartphone,” said Tom Thomas of Olive Touch Healthcare.
“In short, iDecide is a secured place where all the medical records of one’s family can be stored. The App gives instant access to the records from anywhere in the world during medical emergencies. It is safe and secure, because it is the user who controls access to the clinical database. The other features of the App include online appointment, phone consulting, search for patients/service providers and peer consulting among patients,” said Tom Thomas.
Incidence of lifestyle diseases that require consistent monitoring has been increasing across India, particularly in Kerala. Data support can help in the management of diabetes and heart diseases, which require prolonged care.
“Lack of clinical data archives and inconsistent patient history affect the quality of diagnosis and add to the treatment expense. In some cases, it even results in premature death of the patient. Most patients in India avail healthcare without any previous clinical record, making diagnosis a difficult task, often resulting in wrong diagnosis. In such cases, diagnostic procedures like tests are often repeated, resulting in cost escalation,” he pointed out.
A study conducted in 50 hospitals in Kerala revealed that none of the patients had information about how medical records are maintained, and they visit healthcare providers without records. Often, prescriptions and test results are misplaces or lost.