The third session of Health Level 7 Philippines’
Health I.T. Round Table Discussions was held last October 13, 2015. It is now
officially called H.I.T. Sessions.
Dr. Mike Muin of HL7 Philippines conducted updates
on the progress of HL7 in integrating the various stakeholders with regards to
the standards in transmitting and conveying information between healthcare
providers, health industry Information
Technology implementers, telco representatives, app developers, medical
practitioners, professionals and
stakeholders.
The first
subject for discussion was the presentation of Dr. Richard Mata who developed
an app that creates digital medical prescriptions, patient records and even
patient admissions to hospitals. The app available for laptop, iPhone and iPad
use is called E-Prescription. It is intended for the use of Filipino doctors in
the Philippine Medical setting. Dr. Mata disclosed that accidental mis-readings
of handwritten medical prescriptions resulted in the death of around 7,000
Americans a year. That this is also occurring in the Philippines is also a
fact. This is due to the notorious illegible handwriting of doctors and that
mistakes in reading them are not uncommon. This is to the detriment of the
patients and medical practitioners as well. It aims to do away with handwritten
prescriptions as a means to minimize such mistakes in the practice of medicine.
Because of his experience and the desire to
streamline his practice, Dr. Mata decided that an app developed by a medical
practitioner is the best and practical way of handling the needs particular to
medical practitioners. Dr. Mata also realized that internet connectivity is a
problem in most areas of the country particularly in rural areas where he
practiced paediatrics. Thus the app was designed and develop to be a “stand-alone”
app that will not require internet connectivity. This app was used by doctors
who responded to a typhoon that recently devastated Compostela Valley.
The app optimizes and speeds up the time that
doctors spend for each patient. Not only is the prescription recorded and
printed, patient records can also be archived digitally so that records can be
retrieved via laptop, iPhone or iPad whenever it is required. What is also
important is that all patient date in the app and the app itself will be “owned”
by the doctor who uses it.
The second presentation was by Mr. Louie Cruz
regarding Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine. Mr. Cruz advocates the
need for DICOM Standards with medical imaging systems. The three 3 Major Health
IT Systems that need DICOM are the following:
PACS – Radiology, Cardiology
EMR- Patient demographics, Physician Orders
EDMS – Medical Archives
The need for DICOM stems from four reasons:
·
Separate Information Systems
·
Increased requirements
·
Digital; information Gap
·
Growth of exponential data
Thus, video related requirements and the advent of
new modalities will need DICOM Standard. This is a communication standard for
handling, storing printing and transmitting medical information for medical
imaging. It will provide for Interoperability
of equipment and protects the system from future obsolescence. This will result
in financial and workflow benefits and does away with hard files (paper).
The H.I.T. Discussion is for the continued
consolidation of the Health I.T. and I.T. industry and other stakeholders so as
to create a comprehensive consensus with regards to standardization among the
stakeholders.
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