NARI to use software to keep better track of patients across all therapy centres in city
NARI to use software to keep better track of patients across all therapy centres in cityu00a0
Au00a0project initiated by the National Aids Research Centre (NARI) aims to record details of all HIV/AIDS patients in the city in the digital format.
Dr Ramesh Paranjpe, director of NARI, told MiD DAY that an IT company had come up with a software which could keep track of all the HIV/AIDS patients visiting NARI and its multiple anti-retroviral therapy clinics in the city, besides recording complicated data like their immunity status, treatment, and any studies they are involved in among others.
"We have hundreds of patients visiting NARI daily. Some come here simply for diagnostics, some are taking treatment while some are part of our research studies. There are extensive data on each person and though we have computerised data, it's not all in one place and doesn't enable us to know all about a patient. This (IT) company has suggested a software where each patient would be given a unique ID and all their data would be in one place," he said.
State data up nextAsked if the project would be limited to NARI and its clinics in the city, Paranjpe said it was only the beginning.
"We are going to try out the new software and its effectiveness. If we find out that it improves the quality of our work and management of HIV, then we will propose to take this to a state level," he said.
The company, Persistent Systems, had also developed a software to keep track of all swine flu patients in the state. The software made it possible to know the exact number of suspected cases, positive reports, those on Tamiflu treatment, and deaths and discharges.
"We had a good experience with the swine flu monitoring system. And that's why we thought of a software on similar lines for HIV/AIDS patients as well. Though initially this would cater to only clients of NARI, later this could be rolled out in a bigger way across the state like the swine flu system," said Dr Abhay Jere, associate vice president at the company. He said the project aimed to make data retrieval a methodical and accurate process.
