The Patient is on the Computer
Information technology is rapidly making its entry in the health sector. For example it is a tool to provide quicker and better information between eg. the general practitioner and the hospital. And to patients this means for example that we can be monitored by the hospital – even in our homes.
12-year-old Amalie suffers from asthma. Every morning she measures her lung function using a simple device, a so-called peak-flow meter. She records the results in her personal table on www.astmacenter.dk . If the figures are getting critical she will automatically be instructed via the computer to increase her medication and consult her doctor. She can also mail her doctor if in doubt of anything – and she can chat with other children suffering from asthma. In another part of the county Svend aged 62 is playing cards with his neighbour. He is having trouble with his heart – but instead of being admitted to hospital for observation he walks about in his home wearing a sensor. The sensor automatically notifies the hospital if the cardiac sounds get irregular.
Both of the above examples are fictive – but the projects are real. And these two projects under the umbrella of the Digital North Denmark, - the DDN, is just a few examples of IT usage in making life a lot easier for people with various complaints.
Book your Own Appointments
Imagine you could access your doctor’s calendar via the Internet, find an available time-slot that would fit in with your schedule – and book it. You could also request an extended prescription on the your daily medication. This is already feasible in practice thanks to a DDN project now concluded. The major problem within the health sector is – as is the case with many other sectors – to make the host of various types of computer programmes ”talk together”. The municipality of Aalborg was successful in finding a common system enabling the home care to communicate with both the hospital and the patients’ general practitioners via the Internet. And in Frederikshavn they work to make all IT systems of the hospital ”talk together”. This is a large-scale project that will also be beneficial to the patients. For example the hospital has introduced a patient’s terminal – a rolling computer with DVD and Internet access to be used by patients from their beds. It is in so heavy demand that the hospital needed to order more computers.
The county of North Jutland is the largest in the country. This also means that the time of transportation in an ambulance can be long before the patient reaches a hospital capable of taking over the effort with the patient. But now paramedics are getting a new tool. Owing to IT they are now able to communicate with a doctor in the hospital while on the road. He can monitor the patient online and advise the paramedics in their proceedings. This also means saving lots of precious time once the patient arrives to the hospital. The doctor will not need a lot of information before taking over from the ambulance men when the patient arrives in the hospital.
This is just a few examples of the interesting projects in the service of the health sector supported by the Digital North Denmark. See the projects in the list below.
The Asthma Centre - The Electronic Shared Patient Record
The Digital Hospital
Remote Monitoring of Cardiac Patients
On-line Appointment Booking and Extension of Prescriptions with the Doctor's Consultancies in North Denmark
The Prehospital Effort
Exchange of Information within the Health Care Sector
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