 |
| Information Technology and Systems |
| Over the years, Information Technology at Aravind has transcended from being a tool for improving efficiency to becoming a core strategy towards achieving its mission of eliminating blindness. Today, Local Area Network is available in all the five Aravind Eye Hospitals. A Wide Area Network is in place to share the data among all the hospitals. All Aravind IT activities are managed by a central team at LAICO in coordination with respective hospitals IT staff. IT & Systems department in each location supports the users, improves the software and works with users for the development of new systems. Central team takes care of new development, improving existing systems and also providing services for other eye hospitals to implement IT. IT is widely used for the following key applications at Aravind Eye Care System: - Integrated Hospital Management System software to manage patient care areas. - Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in Bio-Chemistry and Microbiology Labs - Community Outreach Management - Materials Management - Financial Accounting - Human Resource Management - Eye bank Management - Intranet for internal sharing of information - Tele-Ophthalmology - Eyestalk - A tool for clinical consultation - ADRES – Aravind Diabetic Retinopathy Evaluation Software - Training Courses Management - Consultancy Management - Research Data Management - Fingerprint based attendance - VISION 2020 e-resource IHMS at Aravind Eye Hospitals |
| IT Division worked on improving the performance of overall system by fine tuning databases and improving the software. Enhancements were done in the areas of clinical management, operation theatre, patient counselling, dietary and other modules to improve the utilization of system and generate necessary information. Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) application was implemented in the areas of Refraction to record and print glass prescription details and in housekeeping to capture complaints right at the patient room to intimate the concerned department at once. A miniature version of IHMS with some specific customization to suit Community Clinic and vision centre were created and implemented in Tuticorin and Thiruppur community Clinics, Chinnmanur and Periyakulam Vision Centres. During 2006, IHMS has been implemented in eight more hospitals in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Follow-up support service has been set up to offer the existing users of IHMS. As of date 12 more hospitals are in the list for implementing Aravind’s IHMS system during 2007. Inventory Management Software |
| Windows based Stores management software which was installed at Aravind-Madurai in 2003, is now implemented at Aravind - Tirunelveli, Theni and Coimbatore with necessary improvements. Accounting software |
| Uniform accounting software was implemented during this year to facilitate easy transmission of data from satellite hospitals and also to send the audited accounting details for use in satellite hospitals without any conversion. Upgrade of IT facilities |
| - IT department of Aravind-Theni and Tirunelveli have been remodeled - Fingerprint Attendance system was introduced in all our hospitals. - Touch screen system for patient information was setup in Theni in November 2006 - Structured cabling was done at Aravind- Tirunelveli and Theni for easy maintenance and management. Wireless network was setup in the speciality clinics to provide connectivity for PDAs and Laptop computers. Rack based network cabling work was done at LAICO during this year. - WAN was setup with all the vision centers and hospitals for live consultation, data sharing etc. Air Jaldi 2006 |
Dharamsala, October 19 - November 2 Mr. Rajan, EDP department and Mr. Pranesh, Telemedicine visited Dharamsala National Workshop on IT applications in Eye Care |
Aravind-Madurai, August 3-5 Participants to the National Workshop on IT applications in Eye Care Several IT companies, more than 70 delegates from India, Bangladesh and Nepal attended the workshop. Aravind Tele-Ophthalmology Network Vision Centres, Theni District |
| Year 2006 marked a new beginning in terms of connectivity for Aravind Vision Centres. All the five centres have migrated to 4 mbps high bandwidth wireless connectivity that uses 802.11b technology. The technical support for this initiative came from the IT team from UC Berkeley headed by Mr.Sonesh Surana under the leadership of Mr. Eric Brewer. Vision Centres demonstrate the power of tele-ophthalmology in reaching rural population at primary eye care level thus overcoming challenges like accessibility, availability of critical resources like ophthalmologists etc. Extending the Reach |
| Aravind in collaboration with Digital Health, Intel India Programme supported Government Rural Hospital, Baramati, Maharashtra to set up a real time ophthalmic tele-consultation (along the lines of Vision Centre approach) as part of the Digital Health Centre. An ophthalmic assistant from the Rural Hospital was trained at Aravind Madurai for two weeks to carry out basic screening. eyesTalk, the tele-consultation software is used to send out patient information to Aravind-Madurai to obtain ophthalmologist’s opinion. Real time Tele-consultations will be carried out with HV Desai Eye Hospital, Pune in near future once the broadband connectivity is established. Vision Centres - Scaling up |
| Through a generous grant from Lavelle Fund for the Blind, USA, Aravind is scaling up the Vision Centres increasing the tally to twenty five by setting up another 20 Vision Centres that will be spread across and linked to each of the Aravind Eye Hospital. Considering the long term sustainable model, ATN would explore multiple technologies for connectivity. Few of these Vision Centres would be set up with broadband DSL connectivity (256 Kbps to 1 Mbps) taking advantage of increased penetration of DSL connectivity in the rural areas. Reading & Grading |
| Aravind TIFAC-CORE in Diabetic Retinopathy, with support from TOPCON South Asia Pvt Ltd, Singapore has developed exclusive Diabetic Retinopathy Reading and Grading Software ADRES (Aravind Diabetic Retinopathy Evaluation Software). It allows for exchange of images of retina and clinical information of diabetic patients via VSAT (satellite)/LAN/Leased line through the client computer at the eye camp site or secondary eye hospital end. Eye care programmes that do not have Retina specialist or doctors from other disciplines like diabetologists could use this software that would ultimately benefit the patients. Further extending the reach, in Dec 2006, Aravind implemented tele-consultation programme at the M V Diabetes centre, Madurai through ADRES software to screen patients with diabetes for diabetic retinopathy. Patient’s retinal images and clinical information is sent to Aravind over DSL connectivity and a report on patients’ eye condition along with the treatment advice is sent back immediately by the Retina specialist at Aravind, Madurai. Tele-education |
| As a postgraduate institute, Aravind joined the initiative of collaborating with IGNOU, New Delhi to take part in online classroom sessions offered through IGNOU VSAT connectivity during the month of July – August 2006. |
| Top |