Ma Lingzhi felt uncomfortable early that morning. Following
routine, the 71-year-old, hypertension patient made the 10-minute
walk from her home to the Jiaodong Community Clinic in Beijing.
She saw the doctor immediately upon arrival. There was no
registration, no forms to fill out, no floundering for folders, no
hassle.
The compiling of health
records and the writing of prescriptions is all computerized at a
community clinic in Dongcheng District.
Doctor Liu Dong simply swiped Ma's green medical card in his
laptop, instantly bringing her medical history up on the
screen.
Within minutes, Liu had put his digital signature on Ma's
digital prescription. From there, Ma walked to the clinic's
pharmacy, where she ordered and purchased her medicine with another
swipe of her card.
These cards provide a new kind of community healthcare service
introduced in Dongcheng District in Beijing. By the end of 2006,
more than 60,000 residents in the district had a green medical
card.
This new type of digitalized medical care ensures long-term and
continuous medical service for residents, while monitoring medical
workers' practices, said Ni Dong, deputy director of the
information office of the Dongcheng District Community Healthcare
Management Center.
All of the doctors' work, including compiling health records and
writing prescriptions, is done via computer. These doctors even
take their laptops on home visits. The laptops' GPS systems make
their traces easy to monitor.
A green medical card
provides a new kind of community healthcare service introduced in
Dongcheng District of Beijing.
In the management center, a large screen shows the real-time
distribution of patients and doctors, the demand for drugs, and
prescriptions issued among the district's 46 community clinics.
In addition, the computers can display the epidemiological
status of major chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary
heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer in the district.
Data can be displayed within areas of any geographic range by
simply enclosing the range on the map. The screen will even show a
particular resident's address and medical records.
According to Chen Shupeng, senior academician of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, the ability to locate individuals is the
biggest boon of information technology. He believes that applying
the state-of-the-art technology to healthcare will help medical
workers deal with emergencies such as bird flu.
"Information technology provides the platform doctors need to
make the quick responses to save lives," he said.
(China Daily January 17, 2007)
