IBA Health seeks interactive care
IBA Health seeks interactive care
IBA Health Limited have been awarded $3.2 million by the Australian Government to replace their paper based care service with a more reactive computer based system.
The money will be spent on Research and Development to find the ideal solution for meeting patients needs and making it easier for doctors and clinicians to suggest the best diagnosis for their patients.
Paper-based static, clinical and care pathways have long been used by nurses and doctors as a guide, based on best practice, for the delivery of care in particular context. The reality however is that each person's condition and responses to treatment is different.
A computer based system would be able to update each person's treatment much more quickly and provide information more easily to the relevant nurse or doctor.
IBA Marketing Director, Greg King, explains why this new interactive system will be so much more useful than their current paper-based one: "If you imagine the current clinical management system is like the street directory for central Sydney. I start off in North Sydney and I want to get to George Street. Seems pretty straight forward, but as I start my journey, I don't realise there is going to be traffic, roadworks and demonstrations blocking my path. That's what the current paper-based system is like. It tells you the basic information about the patient, but it doesn't give you an update on the latest changes to that patient.
So the reason why we need an interactive system is so that when a nurse sits with a patient, she/he can enter information into the database immediately about the patient no longer responding to a certain medicine. The database will then call up a suggested new medical programme for the patient to follow. So the patient will be given the best medical advice.
We are looking to research into the best way to provide this service. It might be through a standing computer terminal; a palm pilot or a mobile phone. Part of the research is to look for ways to enable the clinician to interact without burdening them with huge quantities of information."
In Australia the market for clinical solution is estimated at over $500 million. Clinical Pathways will be occupying an increasing share of this as the health market embraces integrating solutions associated with the analysis and delivery of care across all health sectors.
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