Risha was a brilliant student who excelled in her academics, all her teachers and parents were sure that this girl is going to top the NEET exam 2018. But little did they know that this dream would never come true.
400,000 deaths are caused every year due to medical errors that result due to the absence of interoperable healthcare environment.
Just a few days before the NEET exam, Risha complained of high fever. She was taken to one the best hospital in the city for the treatment. The doctors initially started off with treating the elevated temperature by giving antipyretics along with antibiotics, suspecting a viral infection. The fever subsided within two days however, she developed severe stomach pain and was rushed to the hospital and was given Buprenex injection. Later, within 3 hours she developed severe breathing problem and was found dead due to an undetected respiratory arrest.
So, was it the fever that took her life? or the negligence of the doctors and nurses? Well, the answer is NO!
Risha is a victim of a preventable medical error caused because of lack of interoperability between EHRs. Risha was allergic to opioid class of drugs and her death was the result of overdose of the very medicine that promised to cure her pain. Had her medical history been available to the hospital, it would have prevented them from using the opioid pain killer and perhaps Risha would still be alive today.
About 400,000 deaths are caused every year due to medical errors that result due to the absence of interoperable healthcare environment. Interoperability is the degree to which a number of medical devices and technologies can interpret, exchange and display health information in a user-friendly manner wherever a patient receives care.
Some of the many benefits of healthcare interoperability are as follows:
- Healthcare providers have access to patient data in real-time allowing to make quick and accurate treatment decisions
- Patients can access health data anytime, anywhere and share it with the doctors allowing faster communication allowing saving patients lives in case of emergencies
- High cost of healthcare can be cut down drastically due to interoperability
Sambav is an US-based integrated healthcare fulfillment platform developed for the Web, Android and iOS platforms to take care of an individual’s complete healthcare needs. It offers secure storage of electronic health records, minimizing the scope of manual errors and avoiding the need of carrying them during doctor visits.
