The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : The life ‘saviour’

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Saturday, Oct 04, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

The life ‘saviour’

‘Web-Viewer’ system installed in Gandhi Hospital
Specialists can keep tab on vital signs of patients

— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Hi-tech: A view of the new cardio thoracic surgery intensive care unit at Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad.

HYDERABAD: Recently at Gandhi Hospital, a patient recuperating from a heart surgery developed a complication. The medical officer, in-charge for the night, immediately called up the specialist doctor for help. By the time the specialist came, the patient’s condition deteriorated and doctors had to use a ventilator to revive the patient.

Had there been a system in place, wherein the specialist could have accessed the vital signs of the patient from the comforts of his home and give instructions, the trouble and the risk of keeping the patient on a ventilator could have been avoided. This practical difficulty in treating patients drove the hospital doctors to search of an answer.

After much research and consultations, the answer came in the form of ‘Web-Viewer’, a software that enables access of all vital signs of a patient to specialists, when they are not present in the hospital. This innovation, according to the doctors, would help save lives of patients during emergency situations. Saviour

“This is for the first time that such a system has been installed in the State. Corporate hospitals don’t have it. Only two other hospitals in the country G.B. Pant Hospital, New Delhi and PGI Chandigarh have such a system. The software is custom built and displays vital signs of 15 patients simultaneously,” Gandhi Hospital cardiologist Dr. Abhijeet M. Dashetwar said. Generally, vital signs of a patient, including ECG, blood pressure, heart pressure etc, are displayed on the monitor, located besides the patient. These monitors are hooked up by a network to the Central Nursing Station (CNS), where the in-charge doctor keeps a tab.

“In emergencies, the duty doctor calls the specialist, who takes time to reach the hospital. This can be avoided because what the duty doctor sees is also seen by the specialist from a remote computer through Internet,” the doctor explained.

The software, worth Rs.10 lakh, was developed by GE Health Care, India and was donated to the hospital free of cost.

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