Introduction
Covid19 has affected the lives of most people in the planet. Health infrastructure in many countries of the world had been stretched. Factories, offices, schools and colleges had to undergo periods of unplanned lock downs. Travel bans were imposed in many parts of the globe. People were unable to be near their near and dear ones even during this enormous crises.
Hospitals and nursing staff had to work tirelessly and often without breaks and holidays. Many doctors were exposed to the risk of infection during the course of providing treatments to their patients. Thus, the health and wellbeing of hospital staff were endangered to a large extent. It should be our endeavor to encourage and protect the hospital staff at this juncture. Innovation through science and technology can certainly improve the situation.
Also, this pandemic has confirmed the fact that, the world is intertwined. The occurrences happening in one part of the world can spread to the rest of the world within a very short time. It has made us conclude that, any solution to the problem must be adopted by the whole of humanity and that it should be eradicated in toto.
Some facts regarding Covid19
Name of the virus – Severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus-2
Name of the illness – Covid19
Pandemic declaration
- 31-12-2019 – First reported to WHO
- 30-01-2020 – declared as global health Emergency by World Health Organisation.
- 11-03-2020 – declared as global pandemic.
Causes of infections occurring inside hospitals
Modern treatments in medicine – A large proportion of the population can obtain in-hospital treatments at reduced costs owing to continuous innovations. This leads to more number of people getting infected inside hospitals.
Contamination – Indirect contact or contamination of viruses between patients occurs mostly due to inadequate cleanliness of hands of negligent hospital staff. This issue gets worse when sick patients are consulted by multiple doctors as well as residents and students in medical colleges. Their daily visits make virus propagation easier. .
Propagation through air – This is due to the spread of viruses by small droplets which remain suspended in the air and are inhaled into the lungs. This is in contrast to bigger droplets which are likely to settle on surfaces within a distance of around 6 feet.
Need for keeping patients out of hospitals
Hospital staff are at the fore front battling Covid19 outbreak. They are most vulnerable to exposure and risk of infection. These are on account of physical proximity to the patients, extended duration of work, mental distress, tiredness, occupational exhaustion,social stigma, violence at hospital premises etc. There is an implicit need to improve the working environment of health care workers and reduce their occupational hazards.
Attempts should be made to contain the number of patients treated in the hospitals. Patiens should be encouraged to obtain services remotely wherever feasible. Visits by doctors and nurses to homes of patients should be made convenient. Legislations and regulations regarding health insurance should be amended accordingly. There is also a possibility of medical equipments like x-rays, ECG etc. reaching the remote spots where care is provided.
Mobile phones and solutions:
- Thermometer / To find out the temperature by providing a finger print.
- iOximeter / Determination of pulse and oxygen level – SpO2.
- Calorie Counter / Helps to track food consumption and relationship to the user’s weight.
- Eye Care plus Tracking eye sight.
- Blood Pressure Watch / Collection and recording of blood pressure information.
- Cardiomobile / Tracks heart ailments and treatments on real time basis.
- On Track Diabetes Blood sugar monitor.
- Noom Walk / It is used as pedometer to count the number of steps.
- Monitoring Heart Rate / For tracking heart rate and monitoring the same.
- Google Fit / It is used for managing running, cycling, walking etc.
- Asthma Tracker and Log / Assisting asthma patients with tracking and managing.
Wearable sensor technologies have started empowering patients. These devices, provide users with information and help in management of their health. These can prevent sickness by providing feedback on health on a real time basis by tracking vital signs. These permit the users to make adjustments and focus their actions to obtain good results for health and fitness.
Mobile phones have become the leading front runner in the increase of health and wellbeing applications, because these have sensors which can be operated from the phones. As such, the mobile phone has now become a popular health device due to the availability of different types of hardware and software.
Technologies to improve working environment of HCWs
Augmented Reality
It is defined as a system which integrates the real object and the digital image. For eg. when a scanner is placed on top of the stomach of a patient, the screen is made to display a stored image of the internal organs such as the intestines etc., for better understanding. This helps the hospital staff to quickly grasp and visualise the patient’s condition. The components of an AR system may include computers, scanners, mobile phones, wrist bands with GPS etc. to ensure that the digital information and images provided are synchronised with the patient’s location and area of concern.
Teaching medicine in colleges and universities is based on observation. In many places, students learn with the help of mannequins or corpses. Certainly, using corpses is the best for teaching anatomy. Students can identify various details of the human body sufficiently and accurately. Only if students can understand the body structure properly, they can become proficient in identifying changes arising due to injury or sickness. Knowing about the human body is therefore of paramount importance for all clinicians. Corpses can not be easily made available in hospitals and it has become an expensive proposition to teach anatomy using them. At the same time, teaching with moulded mannequins also present the same problem because the number of mannequins made available in the class room is not adequate for the number of students. A system of education based on virtual human beings has become a reality, due to developments in computer hardware and software.
Plastic mould Corpse Virtual Reality
Artificial Intelligence
It is predicted that over 80% of the global population has access to wireless connectivity and it is roughly equivalent to 5 billion mobile phones in use.
Health monitoring is considered to be one of the main areas for implementing computerisation. Mobile Health means the coming together of health monitoring and mobile computing. By using technology, communication between patients, doctors and other hospital staff are enhanced. Due to the easy availability of mobile technologies, developing Mobile Health applications are made possible.
The various components of the system would be:
- Various devices with wireless sensors , used in an appropriate setting.
- Processing unit for information extraction.
- A mobile device for transmitting data.
Mobile Patient Emergency to Nearest Hospital
Internet of Things is a system of various computing objects and devices used in our day to day life, connected within a network so as to get the ability to send and receive data to and from each other without human intervention.
Possible activities for implementation in the healthcare environment could be:
- Categorise patients on the basis of their response to treatment. Even before the start of treatment, they must be assessed and placed in appropriate groups.
- Give information in a timely manner, to hospital staff and patients’ family members.
- Explore the possibility of new procedures to document the improvement of patient’s condition, in a realistic manner with concrete empirical evidence, rather than preconceived beliefs.
a) Data received from sensing devices b) Sending sensor data to the hospital server – hospital staff can monitor their patients from their desk terminal.
Conclusion:
Technology helps patients to have a say in their treatment procedures and allows them to have more control and influence. Patients will no more be passive recipients of advice and care, but rather will be well informed citizens actively participating in deciding and monitoring their course of treatments. At the same time, this reduces their dependence on hospital facilities and healthcare workers. Thus, introduction of technology enhances the flexibility of the healthcare system especially during a pandemic.
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