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.