Fortis gearing up to offer web-enabled ECG

As part of its plans to develop IT framework supporting healthcare, Fortis Healthcare Ltd — a Ranbaxy promoter company is working on a system which could provide software driven ECG (ElectroCadioGram) facility to all the general practitioners in the country. A fast track interview with Fortis Healthcare IT head Sunil Kapoor.

Can you explain this new initiative of web enabling ECG?

“Our target is to provide the ECG facility to a patient at the general practitioner level. So when a patient comes in with a heart problem then he will not be referred for a ECG check-up, instead we would provide the facility with the help of adding this software capability to a normal ECG.”

The system — an ECG machine plus the software would be installed at the general practitioner's place. Critical data comprising of a patient's clinical impression and previous history will then be sent via a LAN connection to a team of doctors sitting at the Fortis facility. Doctors will then express their opinion after analyzing the patient's data.

How do you plan to popularize this?

Fortis is planning to target all the general practitioners for this facility and would start marketing the product in a short time. There is some amount of investment, which is required at the general practitioner level. But we expect that it is going to add considerable value to the kind of consultation that they provide to their patients. At present the project is being run at the pilot level at our upcoming Noida facility

What are your other plans in the pipeline?

In addition to this, we are also looking forward to go for Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) at our Noida facility. This system once operational would allow Fortis to link vital patient related data to digital images like, X-Ray, CT (Computed Tomography) or MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

“We are about to finalize the order for this software and soon we will have it for our Noida facility. This would involve scanning of all the digital data of the patient and then an X-Ray or MRI would become a part of a patient's record at the hospital. We would be putting this onto the web with the help of a web server, and selected doctors would be allowed to view this critical data.