As any computer application exit dialog box will tell you, everything not saved will be lost. Living without technology sounds nigh impossible as the world goes through this crisis, with technological intelligence having a huge impact on our ability to prepare for and respond to a pandemic.
Just as the year 2020 will be remembered for multiple unprecedented challenges, it will also be remembered as the year of remarkable achievements in the face of adversity as we address the challenges of the pandemic.
The UAE’s Ministry of Health & Prevention (MOHAP), in partnership with Cerner, has laid a strong foundation for innovation in the nation’s fight against COVID-19. Driven by a belief in the value of adaptability, automation, and interoperability, MOHAP and Cerner built on this foundation by advancing technologies to provide sustainable infrastructure and solutions for health care.
The full consequences of COVID-19 are as yet unseen. Cerner’s solutions are aligned with interoperability standards to enable quick and real-time implementations to address the need of the hour. This is done by enabling the electronic health record (EHR), through open architecture, to bridge the gaps between various third-party systems and medical devices.
Patients on ventilators require heightened care and the speed at which health care professionals respond to emergencies is a critical determinant of the patients’ clinical outcomes. MOHAP’s integration of bedside ventilators with Cerner’s iBus solution has not only improved patients’ health outcomes but has stood to benefit front-line caregivers by giving them time back by eliminating manual data entry.
MOHAP established a fully functional lab at one of its COVID-19 field hospitals in just 48 hours and devices were integrated to provide results efficiently and assist in the control of the spread of the disease. This materialized in a very short span of time owing to the urgency of the situation. Through automation, MOHAP laboratories improved resource utilization, increased efficiency, accelerated test processing, and achieved consistent turnaround times.
Since the outbreak, MOHAP has conducted COVID-19 tests using state-of-the-art medical testing methods as part of its intensified testing campaign. Patients were digitally notified about their lab results to reduce unnecessary hospital visits and as a preventative measure to ensure the health and safety of all. Through its interoperability functionality, Cerner helped to bridge the gaps between clinical, lab, imaging, financial and administration systems and other systems that required real-time data.
Vital signs are recorded for every patient visiting a MOHAP health care facility. A vital sign monitor provides continuous critical data on these patients, including blood pressure, temperature, and respiratory information. On top of this, the significant dependency on ventilators in critical care units, emergency departments, and isolation rooms require continuous monitoring of real-time data. The availability of workflow-driven solutions to connect medical devices to the EHR gives caregivers a single source of truth for patient information. From laboratory systems’ integrated workflows to patient critical care units, this integration has been instrumental in enhancing clinical transformations.
Isolation orders and indicators are displayed outside patients’ rooms on Smart Room Link devices so that appropriate treatments and procedures can be followed. To ensure the same practices are followed at new quarantine locations, MOHAP and Cerner collaborated to bring laboratory devices to the Expo Quarantine Center and create a virtual hospital environment with integrated workflows to capable of providing continuity of care.
The ability to offer scalable solutions for a health care organization to meet its current and future integration needs, and to seamlessly connect various systems, has become crucial in today’s health care environment. The introduction of e-visit workflows has enabled patients to monitor their upcoming appointments.
Around the globe, health systems are traversing new and uncertain. Through faster adoption of new technologies and the streamlining of processes, health care systems are finding new ways to deal with this crisis and operate in the “new normal”. In the meantime, innovative interoperability solutions play a crucial role in improving the quality of life of patients and caregivers. MOHAP is continuously planning for new ways, collaborating with Cerner and other strategic partners, to empower the UAE to create a better tomorrow, today.
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