Fortifying Health

Healthcare is one of the most critical areas, and innovative

application of technology can open possibilities bringing about a paradigm shift

in patient care.

One such application of technology is demonstrated through

Fortis Healthcare's simple use of mobility to enable patient bedside

monitoring remotely-anytime, anywhere.

"Over the LAN/WAN, doctors can monitor key vitals of patients being monitored through PMS installed next to the patient's bed, from anywhere within the campus" -Sunil Kapoor, CIO, Fortis Healthcare

The ability to access critical patient information from remote

locations or home means that the senior consultants and concerned doctors are

able to get accurate, timely and updated information pertaining to their

patients in near real-time-with a delay of only about 4-5 seconds. This not

only enables Fortis to deliver quality patient care based on timely and accurate

diagnosis even when the senior doctor is not around, but also allows patients in

smaller towns to have access to senior doctors and consultants without having to

travel long distances. The system is being used by cardiologists and cardiac

surgeons on WAN. According to Sunil Kapoor, CIO, Fortis Healthcare, "The

concept of anytime anywhere has given a new dimension to IT in healthcare,

facilitating the doctors by giving them access remotely."

The Technology



The patient bedside monitors in critical areas such as the surgical ICU,

Coronary Care Units (CCU), are connected to a central server (also the patient

monitoring system sever), which is then made available on the LAN/WAN. The

monitors have been installed by Fortis at their Mohali and Amritsar hospitals.

All the waveforms travel from the various bedside monitors to the central

server, which is an Agilent data server, and stored therein to be accessed by

the doctors. Over the LAN/WAN, doctors can monitor some of the key vitals of the

patients which are being monitored through PMS installed next to the patient's

bed, from anywhere within the campus or even from another campus.

Need for Remote Access



The extension of mobility to this system has further expanded the delivery

capability, allowing doctors to access information thereby carrying on with

their monitoring and diagnosis from anywhere, even when they are not in any of

the hospitals. This has been enabled by Agilent RemoteLink software, which

allows remote access. The software is installed in laptops provided to the

doctors, and allows access to waveforms stored in the central server from

anywhere. Thereby, giving doctors the freedom to access critical patient

information on a near real-time basis even while on the move and away from the

Fortis network.

The connectivity from the remote location is established by

connecting the laptops to the Internet through a Reliance data card or WiFi and

then establishing a secure VPN link to the WAN and connecting to the patient

monitoring system server. While the system has been available on the LAN since

2001 and on the WAN since 2004, the mobility application has been tested and has

shown good results and it has been taken to the soft launch stage and is

expected to be fully operational in a month's time. "The RemoteLink

software, together with the data card, has will bring in about the true

advantages of mobility, which is the freedom of using the system from

anywhere," explains Kapoor.

On the need for such a system, Kapoor explains, that senior

consultants under whom the patients are admitted need to monitor them,

especially those in ICUs, but they are not available 24 hrs. Consulting a senior

doctor at a flagship hospital would mean sending the patient there physically,

which is not always possible. Therefore, a solution was needed to review patient

status from even outside the hospital campus. Now, Fortis has the advantage of

providing accurate diagnosis from the best in the field and the fact that they

are 200km away does not hamper the service quality.

Shipra Arora