Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur took to Twitter on Friday to announce the launch of ‘iMedX’, a telemedicine technology for homecare.
iMedX brings healthcare support to doorsteps through remote consultation by a physician. The institute said that the system can be accessed through any standard internet browser.
@IITKgp launched iMedX, a telemedicine technology for homecare. The system facilitates healthcare support at their doorstep through remote consultation by a physician. The system is accessible by any standard internet browser and also from a mobile device. https://t.co/UxHEQm3WDc pic.twitter.com/uvpoAHuipi
— IIT Kharagpur🇮🇳 #StaySafe (@IITKgp) October 2, 2020
“The system integrates homecare with healthcare services from the hospital. Considering the emergent needs due to COVID-19 pandemic, the system facilitates critical health care support to patients at their doorsteps through remote consultation by a physician. The system is accessible by any standard internet browser and also from a mobile device,” an IIT article said.
“As number of cases of home isolation and home quarantine are increasing, the system will cater to the needs of current situation. It would be useful also to follow up and treat aged patients,” said Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, the lead researcher.
“In April we had announced eight R&D projects for providing COVID healthcare services. This telemedicine project was key among them especially keeping in mind its effectiveness in our own community,” said Director, Prof. V K Tewari.
“While we are promoting physical distancing, it seems only appropriate to introduce this digital platform to meet the healthcare needs of the campus community effectively. We are creating user accounts for our medical cardholders who can avail the consultation facility at home through video conferencing,” he added.
The institute also plans to expand the use of this technology to people outside the campus through the upcoming super speciality hospital of IIT Kharagpur. Moreover, the researchers are already in touch with healthcare MSMEs for the commercialization of the copyrighted version of the technology.
A base model was installed at Swasthya Bhawan, Government of West Bengal, on a trial basis. Field trials are underway for the base model in Bangladesh.
The system has been built by the researchers at IIT Kharagpur’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering to address the health risk of health care workers amid the pandemic. The telemedicine service is designed to promote physical distancing will facilitating home delivery of medicines.
How the system works
A patient has to sign up to get an account by providing email ID or mobile number to the system. The patient can then make a request for consultation by choosing a department of the hospital, entering their chief complaints and uploading necessary scanned medical records.
Then the hospital administration will process the request and assign a doctor. The doctor, after logging in, sets an appointment date and time for the patient. The system communicates the information to the patient by email and SMS.
On the day of the visit, the doctor consults the patient using video conferencing and advises them by writing a prescription, which is sent by email to the patient. The patient can also download the prescription from his/her account.
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