Idea and Objective
Where&Why is a smartphone app aims to address the issue of missing appointment by patients in large hospitals or nursing homes resulting in subsequent delays and major monetary loss. Doctor's time is precious and so is a patient's health. Such issues of "no-shows" create several operational problems like rescheduling clinical staffs and creating interference in care and treatment of patients. As patients are moved from one department to another in large hospitals and medical centers, there are several reasons that can cause delay in reaching the Operation Theater at the right time, thereby wasting the time of doctors and nurses. Moreover, a lack of a proper workflow of the surgical procedure in the form of a checklist also makes the whole process less systematic. Where&Why aims to solve these problems.
Assumptions:
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The patient is already within the hospital premises
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The doctor and nurses are operating in the same hospital
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This app is meant only for patients who are admitted for surgical procedures
Where&Why aims to address this problem in the following ways-
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Lightweight workflow modeling: Create and maintain a workflow model of the surgical procedure.
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Time estimation: For each workflow step, required time is estimated.
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Real-time patient tracking: Track patients live as they are moved from one department to another.
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Dealing with delays and complications: Any delay or complication is recorded instantly as patients are tracked live.
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Automatic notifications: Notify the doctor at the right time thereby saving his time.
Teaser
Overview of Working Process
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Opportunity to participate in actual minimally-invasive surgical procedures and document the procedures.
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Further communicate with the surgeons directly once the surgery was over.
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Analyze the procedures, pains and gains, through multiple business canvas and value propositions to identify key issues.
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On finding the most burning problem, working on it and proposing possible improvements and solution from an Engineering perspective.
Surgical procedure attended:
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Navigated bronchoscopy, performed by Prof. Dr. Hubert Hautmann, at the Hospital, Klinikum Rechts der Isar.
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SIRT (Selective Internal Radiation Therapy) procedure, performed by Dr. Waggershauser at Klinikum Großhadern.
Sketch of OR room:
BMC: (click to view the high-resolution version)
Selecting Burning Problem:
Out of multiple issues, we decided on two most important issues that we could solve-
Creating sketches:
Updated sketches:
Mockups:
Tracking System
Patient tracking can be done using any RF ID tracking system such as GAO Personnel Tracking System. It is a fully integrated personnel tracking solution that can monitor personnel in real-time. The system is powered by three key components:
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GAO Personnel Tracking Software
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GAO RFID Wearable Tags
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GAO RFID Readers
These three components work together to locate personnel and can be customized to address the needs of any business environment. In three simple steps, the GAO Personnel Tracking System empowers you to know exactly where your personnel are. Here’s how:
STEP 1: Wearable GAO RFID Tags are given to all of your personnel.
STEP 2: GAO RFID Readers are installed at strategic points in your business environment such as entrances, exits, and area-wide zones so that they can “read” the signals being broadcasted by the GAO RFID Tags worn by your personnel.
STEP 3: Each GAO RFID Tag assigned to your personnel transmits data. This information is then imported into the GAO Personnel Locating Software. Through an intuitive interface, you can track and locate personnel from a PC, remotely on your web browser, or even on a mobile device.
Future Scope
This is a basic version of the app and has a lot of scope for improvement. Following are a couple of them-
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Creating a separate view of the app for the doctors. The doctors don't need to track patients but needs to see the workflow of the operation.
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Extending the usage of the app for patients staying beyond the hospital campus.
VPC: (click to view the high-resolution version)
Issues:
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Too many screens
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Doctor shouldn't have the same view as the nurse
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Not optimized enough
Changes:
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Number of screens reduced
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View customized only for assistants/nurses. Doctors don't track. Doctors are just notified.
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Screens optimized with design modifications.
Descriptions:
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Screens 1-4 - Home, Login, Register and Profile
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Screen 5 - With a login credential specific for Dr. Joe's appointments, the assistant can check his appointment for a particular date
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Screen 6 - Appears after selecting a patient and clicking "Track Patient". Provides live feed on the patient's location and shows estimated time remaining to reach the right department.
On clicking "Notify Doctor", a pop-up appears where the assistant can manually enter the complication and send a push notification to the concerned doctor about the delay.
If there is no delay, the text box is auto-populated with "Patient is in OT" and notification can be sent. -
Screen 7 - This screen appears on clicking "Check Workflow" in screen 5. The nurses can see the checklist of workflow here. They start with the preparation phase and just 15 minutes before, notifies the doctor to reach the Operation Theater with a push notification. Meanwhile, the nurses finish the preparation phase, the doctor then arrives and starts the operation.
Screen 1
Screen 2
Screen 3
Screen 4
Screen 5
Screen 6
Screen 6 (contd.)
Screen 6 (contd.)
Screen 7
