Mr. Ishaq Quadri – Consultant CIO, Secretary HIMSS, APAC , India Chapter and Visiting faculty at TISS

How can a hospital improve doctor’s engagement with the electronic health record?
Mr. Quadri replied by saying, “yes there are a lot of advantages that a doctor gets in the way they practice medicine in the hospital and then if they are given good solutions specially in the electronic medical records front, which is got to do with looking at the patients and diagnosing and then entering those details into the system and then the system gives them the alerts with the possibility that when you implement an electronic medical records then there is a possibility that the system, can also for example the infants they have to be given immunization on regular basis and for example there are cases where two drugs cannot be given together , what they refer to as a contraindications and so there may be patients who have a lot of food related allergies and there may be situations where two drugs don’t go together , so when you look at all this then paper based system may not work because if not impossible then it is very difficult to make it happen”.

He further said that the doctor is using an electronic system like an electronic medical record or using any digital technology, these are the benefits where the access to information is there which is very easy and correlation of data is possible, for the same patients or across the patients when you look at the digital form and that is very much possible. The third aspect is if the doctor is doing a good job then the medication errors can drastically come down . Over and above all this , it brings in a culture where people are working as a team together , because the same information which we call as a single source of truth, is available for everyone and it kind of democratizes the whole process because the entire team is collaborating and so the same information is available across hospitals , it’s not that if the patient is admitted into a department which used to be the case earlier where file is stuck in one single department and here it cannot. So today what happens, is the patient if is admitted into orthopedic and he has got some bone related injury for which he is going to the treatment there and at the same time the radiology department can also see the report and so if the information is required there then they are able to see it . And so it improves their capability of care delivery and further it can improve the outcomes which they refer to as the results that can be much better if they improve the implement of digital system , so there are huge amount of benefits when it comes to the EMR usage by doctors. And so the industry is realizing that and it has it has come to realization now.

What is your experience in data analytics observed by Mr. Quadri in the whole process?”
Mr. Quadri said that there are a lot of changes that has been witnessed by him when a they used a system where one is the reference, it is a quick ready reckoner, and since today most of us have lost touch with reading books and so is the case with lot of youngsters and lot of doctors who don’t have the time to go through this material and so imagining if the life of the patient is dependent on this critical information which is lying there it could be in a journal or an article published.
And so one fundamental change that he has noticed is the availability of this information in a very presentable format and also it has been credentialed, providing what is the source through which the article is published and so this is the first benefit in terms of the access to this very important literary works and journal in the industry about the latest drugs and allergy exiting today.
Second benefit as per Mr. Quadri, is correlating this data with the different kinds of patients that they are seeing now, and if the doctor uses a physical book or reference, then it’s quite difficult and so like on google search you put multiple details and then it brings up the required information , and that is the kind of correlation which happens. One more advantage that he stated was that juniors are benefiting from it a lot because seniors were having the advantage of being there in the industry for quite some time and for juniors there is absolutely no support to go to , especially during night shifts and so for in order to o take better decision as far as the care locations is concerned such technology is really helpful for them. And so the last but not the least the advantage which is applicable for both the experienced doctors as well as the youngsters is there, is that newer diseases and newer viruses are coming about with respect to which people have no clue at all and so it is always good to refer to something which has been curated or something which has been studied upon and all across the globe it has been acredited. Hence as per him there are three kinds of advantages that can be seen which is happening across all their organizations.
What are the insights on potential integrated through Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) like up-to-date with work flow of the hospital that you pushed for it and made it happen?
He answered, that an integrated solution is always very effective and its more user friendly if the context is there, for example if the doctor is looking at the symptoms of patient and he is still unclear about those symptoms as well as the case and so instead of looking out for the information it’s better to look into the information which is already present right there.
And second example that he gave was that of the drug related information and so if some correlation can be done and if it is very much integrated with the system that the doctor is using then the chances of the doctor being involved is very high along with the result it brings about in terms of value and outcome is also very good and so it adds to overall effectiveness of the whole solution and the utilization and usability of the application because of which it is very easy because rather than using multiple systems that doctors can go ahead and use one system.

What happens in the case if the information hospital is integrated with solution of the work flow like (Wolters Kluwer’s up-to-date) have on overall service capability and patient outcomes in hospitals?
To this Mr. Quadri replied, that it really enhances the overall efficiency of the clinical decisions as well as outcomes, Further looking at it as a benefit, from the difficult cases that they have handled so far the whole system will benefit the hospitals in the long run because patients will always be satisfied and they will always refer to the hospital. And this is possible if the doctors are using the technology very well. It can also reduce the average length of stay like for example a very long duration of stay can be very expensive and may not be rewarding, and so it can really help in reducing the stay duration. Mr. Quadri also stated that efficiency benefits, financial benefits and overall patient satisfaction benefits will all be administered through the CDS. As per Mr. Quadri, the doctor will be much more confident in telling the patient that the drug will take more time but definitely work on the patient and he will be much more confident when he is backing his decision with the right kind of reference.

Does CDSS integrated with EHR make a difference to Hospitals capabilities for getting accredited?
He said that an Integrated CDSS helps in overall usability of application and doctors will be overall be happy to use it if it is one single system ❏