Meenakshi Mission Hospital & Research Centre (MMHRC) became the first healthcare institution in India to deploy advanced tele-health technology to mitigate pathogenic contamination. The hospital acquired 16 Teladoc Health Vita robots when the COVID19 pandemic was raging and close contact between doctors and patients was not advisable.
According to the hospital chairman S.Gurushankar, who virtually briefed the media on Tuesday, the installation helped to examine 40,000 in and outpatients during the critical months when the hospital with 250 dedicated beds fell short of hands treating Coronavirus infection.
Over 3,500 people who tested COVID-positive were admitted and the robots acted as an effective force multiplier for the hospital and improved the health outcomes, he said.
“with remote monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment of patients, we managed to prevent thousands of potential cases of cross-infection which could have occurred with face-to-face interaction between patients and doctors,” he added.
The state-of-the-art self-driving robots were acquired from US-based Teladoc Health in August 2020 and were put to use by the year-end.
The devices empower the doctors to treat patients from anywhere, anytime as the machines collect and process the data required for making clinical decisions, said senior vice president of the company, Shayan Vyas.
While accessing the vital readings of a patient such as blood pressure and temperature, multiple doctors from different locations can also consult each other simultaneously.
The machines are connected to Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) that enables doctors to get diagnostic reports for line of treatment.
At MMHRC, the robots are integrated to function in the cath labs, emergency, ICUs, and isolation wards. During the pandemic, it was particularly useful because it helped doctors examine patients without putting themselves at risk or using PPE. The device when kept near the patient zooms into the skin, eyes to record the vital signs and the doctors can access the data on their registered mobiles or computers.
Date: 10.11.2020
