TELE EVIDENCE: INNOVATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL FUNCTIONING AND BENEFIT ALL STAKEHOLDERS

6^th International Conference on Medical Informatics & Telemedicine

July 05-06, 2018 | Berlin, Germany

Anil Kumar Gupta, N U Pandey and S Talalti

Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

Background: Expert medical opinion in legal cases is a necessity which till recently was asked by courts and given by doctors through personal appearance in courts. Time spent in this could be better used in patient care, research and teaching. Also, court appearances by doctors lead to substantial expenditure. Objective: The Medical Superintendent Office at PGIMER took up the challenge of addressing this issue through use of technology i.e. video conferencing. Intervention: By virtue of amendment in Evidence Act, a special provision as to evidence relating to electronic records had been introduced. A written request was made to hon�ble high court to accord permission for providing of expert opinion by doctors through video conferencing. Once permitted, the challenge was to establish a link between PGIMER�s real IP address and state wide area network due to the problem of routing. This was overcome by involving National Informatics Centre, New Delhi which established a link. Once the hardware was in place, Medical Superintendent Office established SOPs for smooth running of system and then worked towards ensuring success of this system through regular monitoring. The system so developed now allows doctors of PGIMER to give expert medical evidence through video conferencing without leaving PGIMER campus. Result: 3107 court evidences have been given by doctors of PGIMER till date through tele evidencing. Year wise breakup of evidences given through this system in PGIMER is as shown in the figure below. This resulted in saving of 2187 man-days of doctors at PGIMER, time which was utilized for patient care. Also by obviating need to travel, tele evidence led to direct saving of around INR 3.3 crores and around 100 metric tonnes of carbon footprint.

Biography :

Anil Kumar Gupta is a medical superintendent-cum-professor and head, department of hospital administration. He started his academic career as faculty at AIIMS, New Delhi in 1988 and later joined PGIMER, Chandigarh. He was trained in UK and was awarded Commonwealth Medical Fellowship for one year in 1991-92, availed at University of Liverpool, UK. He has been short term Consultant to World Health Organization (SEARO), New Delhi, an International Consultant to World Health Organization, Nepal and has provided training/consultation in hospital administration to the doctors belonging to Government of Nepal, Maldives, and Indonesia.

E-mail: anil1031@gmail.com