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Indian Pediatr 2017;54: 811

IPAN – The Game Changer

 

Anupam Sachdeva

National President – 2017, Indian Academy of Pediatrics.
Email: [email protected]
 


I
n this year, we are launching the IPAN (Indian Pediatric Access Network). The pilot will be launched in October, 2017 for 100 pediatricians, and then it will be scaled-up to 5000 members of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in the next one year, followed by rest of the members over the next two years. In Phase II, the IAP will involve the Government of India to include all district hospitals, and in Phase III, the Primary Health Care Centers.

What is IPAN?

IPAN is an Electronic Record Management for Out Patient Management. It will include the following:

1. Two touch pads for each clinic

2. A printer

3. A modem and internet connection

One touch pad will be with the secretary who will record all the basic data of each patient and transmit it to the pediatrician. The pediatrician will then fill in the history and chief complaints, which will be all touch-based, and then will submit the data to get the diagnosis, and then the prescription will be generated as a printed version. At the same time, the prescription will be loaded on to the server of IAP in an encrypted format. The encryption will be done at the individual machine level. The machines will have software for generating growth charts also. In addition, the machines have a software for management of vaccination, and will send sms and e-mail to individual patients for reminders of vaccination one week before it is due. The machine also has software for appointment management. It also has facility for second opinion and facility for consultation with super-specialist, and this will be kept as matter of record for medicolegal purposes. We are also trying to negotiate special deal with Up to Date for the group. The machines can be attached to an instrument to carry out 25-30 diagnostic tests, which will be available with the pediatrician.

Along with this, the machines will be loaded with Pediatric Formulary to help the pediatrician for prescription writing. We are also putting the Guidelines for various diseases in the machine, which will help to make our practice more rational. With the uploading of the prescriptions, we will have data on the epidemiology of various diseases across the country as well as the prescription habits of pediatricians. The software will be integrated with Indian College of Pediatrics for various certified paid and unpaid courses.

Once we have the data, we can bring out research papers from IAP. The IAP will also be in a position to give information on various notifiable diseases to the Government of India (GOI). In addition, we will be able to supplement the vaccination data from the private sector.

This will catapult IAP in to a different orbit and we will be able to advise GOI in various aspects of children’s health. The pediatrician can review and analyze all the patients as a dashboard at any time of the day. This will also help to improve the practice of the individual pediatrician.

Thus, it is a win-win situation where the pediatrician digitizes his practice, and the patient also gets all his/ her records digitized. There will be improvement in the patient care, and the government gets data of the various diseases, which are woefully inadequate. We have already got some money for the project as a CSR grant. The software is ready and we will be launching the pilot in October. We look forward to a great response from you all.


 

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