'Digital transformation is important in healthcare system'

Vice-Chancellor of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences, Professor Dr Bhabatosh Biswas on Friday stressed on the importance of digital transformation in healthcare system in the country.

He was speaking on a topic "Digital Transformation of Healthcare System" at a programme called Chikitsa 2017 organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce at a city hotel.

"Transformation of healthcare services is a continued process which started way back. The transformation in the healthcare facilities is a part of history of evolution. The Bengal government has adopted various policies to ensure better healthcare services to the people through digitisation," Professor Biswas said.

He also stressed on the importance of having a proper mechanism of running a digital healthcare system which the state government has already introduced. He said with the introduction of high-end devices, various applications are being used by the people for disseminating knowledge on the fields they work with.

"Many people prefer using their mobile phones or other digital tools for obtaining ideas and knowledge now a days. Hence, these electronic gadgets have become a powerful medium for spreading information," Professor Biswas maintained.

It may be mentioned that the Bengal government has already started strengthening the process of digitised healthcare system through e-prescriptions which have been started in various state-run hospitals. The doctors in the hospitals have been issuing e-prescriptions for quite some time now.

A unique e-prescription comes up against the same registration number of a patient that is issued while getting tickets at various outdoor departments.

E-prescriptions contain the symptoms, clinical details like pulse rate, weight, body temperature etc, test advice and the medicine advice by the physician to the patient as well.

The information relating to the personal details of the patient, including the outdoor department a patient will be visiting to is available in a digitised version in some hospitals.

The patients get a printout while his medical data is stored in the server of the Health department. If the patient wishes to come back again, even for any other ailment, the same data can be gone through to check the medical history of the patient.

The state Health department has a plan to further strengthen the process of digitisation through various means so that if a patient is referred to other hospitals, the doctors there can see the data relating to the patient through the digitised version of patients' records. The e-prescription format has already started at various departments of state-run hospitals. The state government has already started G1 Digital Dispensary, a pilot venture of telemedicine in Sunderbans.