MEDIC - MobilE diagnosis for improved care

Hospitals everywhere are taking advantage of the flexibility and speed of wireless computing to improve the quality and reduce the cost of healthcare. Caregivers equipped with mobile computers now have levels of interaction at the bedside not possible with traditional paper charts, and they can access accurate real-time information (patient records, medication and medical imagery) at the point-of-care to make decisions, diagnose and treat patients with greater speed and efficiency. Greater and more immediate information access, however, is giving rise to challenges in how to effectively select and present the most relevant aspects for given patient care tasks, as well as how to take advantage of the collaborative opportunities afforded by medical community connection. We propose a system that enables doctors to efficiently query, analyse and annotate patient information, in particular medical imagery, using current mobile technologies. The system allows entire profiles with known diagnoses to be retrieved and can be used to compare diagnosis and treatments for patients with similar symptoms or care records. The application can be employed by caregivers either working in the hospital setting or working remotely and off-site as well as a useful tool to facilitate education and training of medical staff.