Kidwai hospital to digitise patient records

Soon, patients can walk in hands-free to the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, as the hospital is all set to go digital with the patients’ records.

At the moment, patients have to carry hospital records, reports and scanned images in person for the scheduled appointment with the doctor.

If all goes well, in the next six weeks, the complete patients’ records will be available online for the oncologists treating cancer patients at the state’s premier institute of oncology.

“We have tied up with Infosys Foundation to digitise patients’ records. We hope it will happen soon. Every patient will get a UID number (unique identity number) and all the records of the patients will be tagged to the UID. Each and every treatment record including scan reports, blood reports etc will be saved under the UID. This way the doctors can have a complete history of the patient at their fingertips,” said Dr C Ramachadra, director of the institute.

Explaining how the digital records maintenance will help, the director said most patients misplace the physical records or do not come for a proper follow-up. “It is also very difficult when the history of the patient is not available easily, patients have to carry it around and some even misplace them. Many patients coming from far-off locations do not come for the follow-up on time and this affects the treatment of patients with cancer,” added Dr Ramachandra.

More than anything, the hospital will now be able to collect data of cancer patients, analyse it and use it for teaching and for further research. According to the director, there might be initial hiccups going digital with the records, but digitisation is what the hospital will be using henceforth.

The hospital treats over 1,000 patients in OPD and has 650 beds that are always occupied and many patients in waiting. About 400 patients undergo radiation and 40 patients take chemotherapy.