The writer Dr. RK Umesh Singh, is a REGIONAL MANAGER for SIEMENS, MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS SYSTEM in JEDDAH (KSA), since last 6yrs. SIEMENS is a global Multinational (GERMANY) Co.
A reminder system is a computer-based system that scrutinizes an electronic medical record to
determine whether certain conditions are satisfied. For example, whenever a new creatinine result is
received, it might check whether the patient's creatinine has risen from previous value and whether the
patient is on any nephrotoxic or renally excreted drug. If so an alert is sent the physician. Other names for
such systems are alerting systems, surveillance systems, or clinical event monitors.
Reminder systems were introduced in the 1970's by McDonald (Regenstrief Institute of
Indiana, US & LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UTAH).Three decades of research have firmly established
The effectiveness of reminding: When reminded, clinicians deliver more preventive care and rectify abnormal conditions more quickly. Reminders decrease post-operative infections in patients eligible for periop erative antibiotics, shorten length of stay for patients who have laboratory values that indicated life threat ening situations, lower the rate of renal damage in hospitalised patients on nephrotoxic agents and
improve influenza morbidity during epidemic years in vaccine eligible patients.
The reminding paradigm has also been applied in real-time at the point of order entry. This type
of intervention, by shaping the treatment patterns of physicians and by the reduction of medication and
other errors, can reduce hospital length of stay, and inpatient and outpatient data records. The development
of physician -order- entry systems must be a current objective of state hospitals. Unfortunately, we
haven't had any reminder electronic system.
Our state practicing physicians should be aware of the potential of reminder systems and physi cian-order-entry systems. Such systems are becoming standard components of electronic medical records.
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