Saturday, August 6, 2016

Reaching out an innovation-incubator’s ‘integrative medicine’ services through global E-health (incubatee) centers

Objectives/Goal: Transforming healthcare through transparency, accountability and shared learning between health professionals and patients with chronic illnesses globally.

Focus areas:

Evidence informed health-professionals Education

Health innovation and Wellness Centers

Tertiary health care through Medical Hospitals

Reverse Medical Tourism

Remote and Home-Health Care


Motto/Slogan: “Global learning toward local caring.’


Strategy: We begin with a patient-centered training program for E-health entrepreneurs (incubatees), also designated, ‘patient information communication managers,’ PICMs who shall be interested graduates in any discipline, chosen from their community of residence (rural-urban) globally. These trained E-health entrepreneurs will run the Innovation incubator’s E-health and wellness centers set up in their residences in the community where they shall interview patients, and create an online record using their patient’s history, clinical images and past investigation records (after removing patient identifiers to nurture patient privacy) and share it online with the Innovation incubator’s global-learning team for them to suggest solutions to support the patients and their locally practicing doctors with evidence based information to promote ‘remote-healthcare’ that in the near future will be augmented toward a tertiary-level, home-healthcare. The entire learning transactions between the global and local learning team around the individual patient’s treatment (including data from innovative ‘n of 1’ trials around the patient) is shared in the patient’s online-record (as a web logged case report) taking care to remove all identifiers as per HIPAA guidelines: http://cphs.berkeley.edu/hipaa/hipaa18.html . Many such online records and patients and care-providers are thus connected transparently and accountably in a participatory blended learning eco-system.


More here on the business model and call for students for this course: http://userdrivenhealthcare.blogspot.in/2015/06/global-learning-toward-local-caring.html


Training workflow and steps to patient-centered, discovery based learning and innovation outlined in a past lecture here: http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec54091/001.htm,


What is a generalist E-health entrepreneur and why we need them as incubatees for our incubation center? Link to a past lecture here: http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec54101/001.htm

Past lecture on assessment of Generalist Learning Competency: http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec54111/002.htm


Sample case record uploaded in spring 2014 by our PIMC here: http://www.udhc.co.in/INPUT/displayIssueGraphically.jsp?topic_id=1593


Same case record published (with a suggested innovation) as a case-report by our global elective students here: http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2015-211127.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=GrkuudGK4zzuAwk




Sample case record (uploaded in Spring 2016) here: http://globaludhc07.blogspot.in/2016/02/a-18-years-old-girl-with-lower.html


Past lecture on Informal healthcare providers here: http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec53961/001.htm

Value Addition to the Innovation incubator’s group:


1) Better patient outcomes for chronic complex patients seeking health care services from the Innovation incubator’s Group. Global E-health centers managed by trained E-health entrepreneurs and citizen scientists in global locations will support medical tourism where a few complex issues that cannot be tackled online can be called to the Innovation incubator’s tertiary care hospital for further interventions.


2) Transparent and Informed health care for patients will mean better health outcomes for patients (E health centers will become wellness centers) and better financial outcomes for Innovation incubator’s Group.


3) This is a novel project and perhaps the need of the hour. This will also provide an opportunity for a training program in this area and developing a future work force for this form of health care delivery.


Risks: 1) As this is novel and aims for transparency and better health care outcomes for people it may upset other stakeholders with different motives.


2) Extreme care shall be required to nurture patient privacy according to HIPAA guidelines: http://cphs.berkeley.edu/hipaa/hipaa18.html and at the same time promote transparency.


3) We would have to have a strong and committed network of health professionals to sustain the high standard of ‘care’ we are promising.


Requirements to start the Project:
Financial investment required for this from the Innovation incubator’s Group will be minimal.
Currently this has already been piloted in a Tertiary Medical hospital and Medical college in Bhopal with an E-health center in Mathabhanga, West Bengal.


WORKFLOW for project at the Innovation incubator’s hospital and its local community:

Trainee selection, trainee provided with laptop and data card

Trainee posted to Medicine ward with current PICM and

Training received on how to capture patient data and share it in http://www.udhc.co.in/ to enable further online network processing of patient data

Training completed and execution of the same workflow in other Innovation incubator’s E health centers that can be gradually scaled in the community, state, nation and globe.

Past Publications on this work: 




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