► e-Diagnosis - An overview

Let's look at a very real problem in sub-Saharan Africa - There is a massive shortage of trained medical personnel, a huge expanse of land to cover and a very highly distributed population.  Add to this the lack of roads, inadequate rural transportation infrastructure, medical facilities, lack of many patients financial ability to travel, culture.....the list goes on.

Distance is an obstacle.

Fig 1 - Patient and Specialist or Doctor are separated by distance.

The challenge is for care providers to find a way of getting patients and Doctors together some how.  Traditionally, there are two way for this to happen:

  1. The patient travels to the clinic - the Patient goes to the Doctor

  2. The Doctor makes a house call - the Doctor comes to the patient.

We have already eliminated both of these 'physical' consultation scenarios - Difficult logistics!  However, what if we could find a way for the patient's 'medical information' to be presented to a Doctor without the need for them to be in the same place!

e-Diagnosis is the process of remotely conducting an evaluation of a patient's condition with data transferred digitally from one place to another with the conclusion of that remote analysis been transferred  back to the patient local carer.

Whats Needed to do this?

First we need to have a care worker with the patient that can gather the required information.  This information must then be prepared in such a way that it can be easily transmitted to a remote DIAGNOSTICIAN for analysis.

Data is gathered.

Fig 2 - Data is gathered and passed to the Doctor who then passes back his recommendations.

First we need to have a care worker with the patient that can gather the required information.  This information must then be prepared in such a way that it can be easily transmitted to a remote DIAGNOSTICIAN for analysis.

What are the processes involved?

There are 3 parties involved in the e-Diagnosis process:

  1. The patient/care giver (We call this party the REQUESTER or RQ)

  2. An e-Diagnosis service provider - i-MED is this case (We call this party the SERVICE PROVIDER or SP)

  3. A remote specialist (We call this the EVALUATOR or EV)

There are 9 steps required for a full cycle e-Diagnosis:

  1. Patient is examined by the requester

  2. The REQUESTER gathers data, images etc. using his computer

  3. The REQUESTER’s computer sends the case to the i-MED SERVICE PROVIDER server

  4. The EVALUATOR's computer collects cases from the i-MED SERVICE PROVIDER server

  5. The EVALUATOR records a diagnosis and a recommended care plan

  6. The EVALUATOR’s computer sends the diagnosis report and care plan to the i-MED SERVICE PROVIDER server

  7. The REQUESTER’s PC collects the diagnosis and care plan

  8. The REQUESTER reads the diagnosis and care plan

  9. The REQUESTER then administers the patient care. 

You can follow the steps in the flow diagram below:

E-Diagnosis Steps

Fig 3 - The Steps of an e-Diagnosis

The i-MED Portal Servers have a complex role to play in our e-Diagnosis platform.  They maintain process integrity by actively monitoring cases that flow through the network.  Cases that are not attended to in a timely way are returned to the REQUESTER owner at expiry time so that alternative arrangements can be made for diagnosis.

All transmissions across the internet are secured using encryption, compression and the i-MED proprietary CHUNKING™  technology.

It is also common for the REQUESTER or the EVALUATOR to see a second opinion prior to rendering the FINAL DIAGNOSIS and CARE REGIME. 

e-Diagnosis Summary

The MEVAL (tm) Process

Fig 4 - The Complete e-Diagnosis Process