Hosted in the Cloud: HIS

In IT terminology, SmartKure is the front-end of the integrated medical solution provided by iKure TechSoft. It’s a SAAS model Hospital Information System (HIS). One of our objectives is to build Data Warehouses comprising appropriate health information and accessing tools. SmartKure does exactly that. It consists of an online hosted application to be used by both doctors and patients. Patients can search doctors for better treatment of both generic and crucial diseases. On the other hand, doctors can store patient information and also receive feedbacks. SmartKure also provides a guided appointment system through website login, SMS or phone.

SmartKure consists of a Doctors’ Module, a Patients’ Module and Medico Informatics. The various uses of these modules are:

• Doctors’ Module is used to diagnose patients by doctors. They are also aided in their decision making by the “Guided Diagnosis” feature. The “Guided Diagnosis” is achieved with the help of intelligent data-mining of Medico Informatics, which is the data warehouse of the system. Doctors can also take first hand feedback from patients they have treated. In case of poor feedback the doctor would be alerted and he may speak with the patient and fix the situation. The system will stress more to identify the good doctors among the group rather than pinpoint the not so good doctors.
• The Patients’ Module is used by the patients to search for a more suited doctor, to book appointments, and to provide feedback on their own health as well as their satisfaction with the doctor. A step by step guide will be provided for patients who are not aware which doctor they need to go to for their problem. Patients can search based on specialization, location, feedbacks, fees and availability. Thus, one saves time, money and minimizes wrong medication through this process.
• Other than patient feedback the system will also use data from independent bodies through surveys about the quality of doctors. This will be categorized as critic’s recommendations.
• Patients can easily book appointments in advance, in case the doctor has tied up with the system.
• All the doctors who sign up will need to enter details about their profiles, experience, and expertise in an area and up to last 5 major cases handled. This helps patients in having a better idea about the doctors area of expertise.
• For the not so tech savvy patients, our Tele Agents will facilitate the searches and setup appointments. The system has features for phone and SMS reminders as well, thereby making the process convenient and hassle free.
• The web search will be very light weight since we are using web 2.0 technology and W3C framework.

The diagram below shows two different ways in which a patient can use our service. He/she can directly use the website to search for a suitable doctor and book an appointment. Or, the patient can call iKure’s Tele Agent to do the same for him/her. Similarly, doctors are in touch with the Tele agent for appointments and feedbacks and they also use the hosted application.

Now let’s list out some of the major benefits that SmartKure provides.

(a) Give people more information to make an informed decision in a timely manner while choosing a physician. A patient can avoid misguided advices of friends and relatives. He can search and find the best doctor himself without losing privacy. This will also help treat critical diseases such as Cancer, AIDS, brain tumor where the patients need the best physician quickly.

(b) Help doctors better evaluate the care their practices give and learn new ways to keep patients satisfied. Doctors are required to post up to 5 of their recent best handled cases. Other doctors can use these details in their own practice or just refer the patient to a better doctor themselves.

(c) Give the patients the power to help change the practitioner/hospital by creating a strong and large referral system. We intend to develop SmartKure’s referral system into the largest in India.

(d) Currently, there is no system in place, which can help a doctor to get the first hand information on the effect of medications, as there are new medicines reaching the market every day. The feedback mechanism will act as a data warehouse that can contribute in such research and analysis.

We have been talking a lot about rural empowerment, how does information reach the remote and rural areas then? SmartKure has a different mode of action there. The Rural Coordinator in our health kiosks located at remote locations will be our point of contact for this service and not the patients directly. He can work with the hosted application or even call up a Tele Agent to discuss the situation. The Tele Agent will provide him with details of a suitable doctor and can also fix an appointment if required. The Rural Coordinator then coordinates with the doctor for his patients. The process is illustrated in the diagram below.

Thus we see that SmartKure is an easy to use application with lots of health information for all medical entities and for all types of diseases. For a patient, it is a life saver. Our life is in our hands and we need the right information at the right time to preserve it!!