Starting next month, the Adult Congenital Heart Defects Association Cyprus (ACHDAC) will begin implementing the e-health project which will allow doctors at any given time, in any country to access their patients’ complete medical histories.
“This is very exciting, both as a breakthrough and as a patient,” said Katerina Papadopoulou, president of ACHDAC.
“They will be able to see exactly what operations patients have had, what drugs they are allergic to, when they last had a check up, what medication they are on, what condition they have.”
The idea is for patients to have continuous medical treatment wherever they are and whatever specialist they visit. UK surgeons could for example access the results of a patient’s cardiogram done in Cyprus via the programme.
Papadopoulou said each patient would have their own member’s card and access codes which would essentially “speak for them”.
Via a computer and the internet doctors will be able to enter patients’ access code into the programme and their entire medical history will come up on the screen.
“Think if something happens to me and I’m not in a position to talk, this card will talk for me. It’s not a medical alert card nor does it detract from that card. It is simply a different card with different and more information,” she said.
ACHDAC hopes that the e-health project will do much to improve the quality of patients’ lives. The idea is also to map all of the island’s teens and adults with congenital heart defects.
Initially the association will start by inputting its own members’ medical histories into the specialized software package. This will then be extended to include all patients, she said.
Eventually ACHDAC hopes that all patients with congenital heart defects will be on the system including children, teens and adults.
As well as the e-health project the association had also moved forward with efforts to raise awareness on Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome, Papadopoulou said.
Over the past two to three years athletes and other teens have literally dropped dead because of SADS, a disorder of the electrical system of the heart that can lead to the death of apparently healthy people without any warning. The campaign has been endorsed by the House President Marios Garoyian, who has pledged €1,000 towards this end.
During the first stage ACHDAC plans to hold informative lectures and educational seminars, targeting parents and communities. The second stage will involve practical prevention programmes involving laboratory and clinical tests in teens aged 15 to 24, she said. The aim is to try and diagnose the heart condition before it becomes fatal. Initially the programme will be carried out in pilot areas that have known elevated heart conditions among its youth.
Concluding, Papadopoulou said the association was publishing its first magazine next month. The Greek language magazine, called ‘ACHDAC, An Affair of the Heart’, would be published three times a year and distributed freely to hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and other large organisations. Initially 5,000 copies would be printed and it would also include a few articles in English, she said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Alexia Saoulli
Quelle/Source: Cyprus Mail, 04.02.2009
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