India’s battle againt Polio…
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India’s battle againt Polio…
Author: dreaswar
Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic & Spine Surgeon,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu & Palakkad, Kerala
India
Does Meditation help improve your health ? … here is an interesting TED talk that goes through some studies and researches on this on this
AuShadha Open Source Electronic Medical Records Project Update:
AuShadha is an electronic medical records project in Python, Django and Dojo.
AuShadha is getting ICD 10 Ready…. Just building an XML parser using elementtree module to parse the ICD 10 codes into a DB.
Know more about AuShadha at: http://facebook.com/AuShadha
Live Demo at : http://tinyurl.com/byaorgq
Dr.Easwar
http://www.dreaswar.com/
Hosted Live Demo for AuShadha Electronic Medical Records Project
Finally my Open Source Electronic Medical Records using Django, Python, and Dojo has a hosted Live Demo.
This features the ‘master’ branch from Github.
Issues:
- Initial screen load takes some times with un-styled display.
- This will be fixed later.
- Please take it as a prototype and explore and let me know.
- Physical Examinations and Admissions management has not been integrated, will do it soon
Login as below:
username : demo_user
password : demopassword
URL: http://powerful-earth-4121.herokuapp.com/AuShadha/alternate_layout/
Please leave your comments here.
Thanks,
Dr. Easwar T.R
http://www.dreaswar.com/
AuShadha Open Source Electronic Medical Records project is coming along nicely.
This has been done in Python, Django and Dojo.
The project introduction is here
This is an update to AuShadha on the walk up to Version 1
I am rather busy lately which is why there has not been a post on this; its been quiet for a while, a little longer than I would have liked. The project though, has been far from quiet. Several Improvements both in UI and the back-end has been done and is continuing in a walk up to Version 1 vision put down in the Github Wiki Roadmap.
The gallery below is some samples of the improvements that have come along. These would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Richard Kim, whose constant advice , criticisms helped shape this and continues to do so. Developers involved with the project has been credited and integrated into the UI.
Predominantly the focus is on a balance between minimalism and functionality. It is known that minimalism is beautiful, but in a non-linear system like EMR the issue is that there may not be a workflow to speak off. People often need to random things at various times and expect the UI to keep things within reach. Initially I was not convinced about this, and my focus was more on workflow. Richard convinced me about this and now I see the light. However, my attraction towards minimalism has not been totally abandoned and try to achieve a balance.
As we see version 1 at the horizon, it will be nice to have your feedback. Do leave your comments and criticisms here.
Head over to Github , grab the code and let me know.
How to Format a Dojo Datagrid with values from different fields: This is an post outlining this approach.
I faced an interesting problem today. I was using a dojo Datagrid and wanted to display a different value in “Author” column if the author value was empty. All the samples I came across on the net were simple formatter examples which dealt with a single column.
Finally I found that the formatter function call has an “undocumented” 2nd argument “rowIndex”. Once I had a handle to this rowIndex, I could retrieve all the fields in the grid row using var rowdata = this.grid.getItem(rowIndex).
var layout = [{
field: “a_content_type”,
name: ‘ ‘,
width: “20px”,
formatter: getIcon
},
{
field: “author”,
name: ‘Author‘,
width: “25%”,
styles: ‘text-decoration:underline;’,
formatter: getAuthor
},……
//You can name the arguments anyway you want.
//You can call this function getAuthor(writer, rowNum), Javascript will pass the values to your arguments when formatter is called.
function getAuthor(author, rowIndex){
if( dojo.string.trim(author) == “”) { //author field was…
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A Reblog worth the noble cause..
This is an Invitation to Join Dr. Easwar’s Paediatric Orthopaedic and Limb Deformity Community at Facebook. This is meant as a forum to discuss Paediatric Orthopaedic Problems, Limb Deformities, Limb deficiencies like Proximal Focal Femoral Deficiency, Fibular Hemimelia etc.., conditions like Skeletal Dysplasia, Cerebral Palsy, Scoliosis etc…
I have created a Facebook Community to foster awareness about Paediatric Orthopaedic Limb & Spine Deformities, Bone Dysplasias, Growth Disturbances and Rare Orthopaedic Disorders in Children.
Paediatric Orthopaedic Problems cover a varied spectrum of disorders that require extensive training to handle well.These include congenital (birth defects) of limbs, scoliosis, hip and foot deformities, metabolic disroders like rickets, dysplasias, bone and joint infections and trauma (fractures).
May be you would have seen a child known to you with a bone problem, or may be one of your dear ones has a problem and didnt know whom to ask. Many parents delay the treatment either because of financial constraints or delay seeking treatment thinking that nothing can be done. Awareness is very important. With a specialised Paediatric Orthopaedic and Limb Deformity Surgeons advise these children can get better results it treatment is started early.
This Community will help parents discuss matters…
View original post 57 more words
My Hospital has requested me to install Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
We are planning, as always, an Open Source Based EMR Solution.
I have desisted from offering my Open Source Electronic Medical Records -AuShadha as one of the options as its still in heavy development.Therefore I have advised two Open Source Implementations that I have short listed after scouring all the available choices that are listed in Wikipedia and Medfloss.
While some of the implementations are not in active development, others are not specifically meant for private clinics like ours. They are for developing nations to keep track of communicable diseases and other specific diseases and treatments. While it is possible to adopt and modify them , there are two Open Source EMR implementations that are reasonably good straight out of the box.
1) GNUmed
2) GNU Health
Why did I choose them ?
I have to implement and maintain them. I know Python. They are in Python.
Implementation should be easier and so will the maintenance.
Tweaking them to closely fit our hospital’s work flow and adding specific forms for data collection and research work should also be possible.
I personally tend to favour GNU Health, because of installation woes on GNUmed’s previous versions and what I thought was a complicated UI layout but recent communications with Mr. Stephen Hilbert and Mr. Karsten Hilbert, developers of GNUmed and an India doctor who uses GNUmed have forced me to take a second longer look.
This week then I will be installing both on our servers and opening it for use by doctors at our hospital for a month. The user friendliness and ‘tweakability’ will be assessed and then we will decide a month later on which to choose.
Keeping fingers crossed. Will give Installation reports, issues, user experience here once it is through.
This post is to stress the importance of Walking aids and Splints in Cerebral Palsy.
Very often we see children with Cerebral palsy operated upon and then they complain that even after surgery, there is no difference. On further probing they confide that there is no improvement after surgery and continuous physiotherapy. Then it slowly comes to light that due to social stigma and fear of being labelled ‘crippled’ these children / parents tend to avoid brace.
This results in children losing the improvement they would have obtained after surgery and physiotherapy and child loses muscle strength, balancing abilities and retards the improvement of the child. This results in poor self esteem, loss of confidence and the child tends not to walk. The child then enters a vicious cycle.
The video at Paediatric Orthopaedic and Limb Deformity Community at Facebook illustrates the importance of splints and walking aids in child’s gait. The left side video shows the child trying to walk without walker or splint, the center video shows child walking with only the walker and the right extreme shows the child with both splint and walker.
Thanks,
Dr.Easwar T.R
Paediatric Orthopaedic & Spine Surgeon
Coimbatore
I have created a Facebook Community to foster awareness about Paediatric Orthopaedic Limb & Spine Deformities, Bone Dysplasias, Growth Disturbances and Rare Orthopaedic Disorders in Children.
Paediatric Orthopaedic Problems cover a varied spectrum of disorders that require extensive training to handle well.These include congenital (birth defects) of limbs, scoliosis, hip and foot deformities, metabolic disroders like rickets, dysplasias, bone and joint infections and trauma (fractures).
May be you would have seen a child known to you with a bone problem, or may be one of your dear ones has a problem and didnt know whom to ask. Many parents delay the treatment either because of financial constraints or delay seeking treatment thinking that nothing can be done. Awareness is very important. With a specialised Paediatric Orthopaedic and Limb Deformity Surgeons advise these children can get better results it treatment is started early.
This Community will help parents discuss matters pertaining to treatment of these conditions. I will also be posting awareness articles, images periodically.
Please visit my Facebook Page to join, like and share the group. Please help raise awareness among general public that these children can get specialised treatment and can improve their quality of life.
Thanks,
Dr.Easwar T.R
Paediatric Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon
http://atomic-temporary-9003308.wpcomstaging.com/
http://spine-india.com/
Dr.Easwar T.R , Paediatric Orthopaedic and Spine Surgeon practising at Coimbatore, India has launched a new Spine & Scoliosis Srugery Community page at Facebook to discuss Spine & Scoliosis Surgery related disorders. This will serve as an community page for discussing various spine disorders, scoliosis, disk prolapse, spine surgery, scoliosis surgery, osteoporosis, vertebral fractures, neck pain etc.
You are invited to visit the page at http://facebook.com/Spine.India/
Dr.Easwar’s Spine & Scoliosis Surgery website : http://spine-india.com
Three Cures for Wasteful Healthcare | David Cutler | Big Think.
As a follow up to my earlier posts and links of wasteful health care administrative expenditure, this video by Dr. Cutler , Harvard based Economist makes interesting reading.
There is video and a transcript by Dr. Cutler at the link above.
More ideas and videos by Dr. Cutler here
AuShadha EMR Project gets listed at Medfloss website
http://www.medfloss.org/node/806
Thanks Medfloss for the help in listing the Project !
AuShadha is undergoing a UI desgin makeover to fit into the present role. I had Open sourced my private EMR, so essentially I am stripping it of personal features and adding in the common use ones that will serve for a multiuser clinic.
Dojo 1.8 migration has already started and is currently in testing.
UI design for the pane controlling an admitted patient is as below. This is a mock up in inkscape and is likely to change.
Once the UI is finalised and Dojo 1.8 is tested locally, I will push it to github repo at http://dreaswar.github.com/AuShadha/
Please watch this space and http://facebook.com/AuShadha for further news on the project
This is a preview of AuShadha Icon Pack.
AuShadha my Electronic Medical Records project will be using this.
If is nearing completion and soon will be released.
The project is hosted on Bitbucket and is private now.
I am finalising the icon licences and attributions. Hence the watermark on the Screenshot.
Most icons are derived straight / modified from NounProject.
Please keep a watch on http://facebook.com/AuShadha/
Please watch this space as I will announce it here or on Facebook
.
In continuation of my previous blog article: How many Administrators does it take to run a Hospital ?, the brevity and conclusion of which interested me so much that I went deeper into this subject.
A link from that article drew me to an article by Kevin MD on the subject of health care spending.
In India, as in the USA where health care spending is something worrisome, this should make very interesting reading.
It is no secret that there is no love lost between Administrators and Doctors in most institutions.
Usually the Administration claims that the doctors don’t justify the amount being spent on them by the Hospital in terms of salary and other facilities provided. This data seems to point otherwise.
As the final word on this is yet to be spoken, still every bit of more reading I do on this topic seems to affirm the feeling I always had : That I was right
See the link below for an interesting article on what the author thinks about this.
Claims are backed up with some data from US Presidents advisors…
Administration comprises one of the biggest factors for health care waste.
But does health reform do enough to streamline it? It’s doubtful.
Consider the following chart presented by David Cutler, a President Obama advisor:
In other words, for every one doctor there are 5 more are employed to do administrative tasks.
And, frankly, it’s ridiculous. As Dr. Cutler says, “There is a lot of money spent doing things that in no other industry do we tolerate.”
Health reformers are hopeful that the money spent for electronic health records and claims processing will cut down on the bureaucracy. But it’s doubtful. Because universal standards for health IT are fragmented and difficult to implement, it’s unlikely that digital systems are a viable answer. If anything, I can see electronic records creating more positions, such as IT support, that will further bloat the administrative side of health care.
This is compounded by the impending transition to ICD-10 — with a 10-fold increase in coding complexity.
Read More Here:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/04/health-care-administration-source-medical-waste.html#more-43828
Dr. Wes: How Many Administrators Does It Take to Run A Hospital?.
I always asked myself this question…
How many administrators does it take to run a hospital smoothly.
They are apparently employed to make doctors life smooth which leads to better working environment and better patient care. .. well, at least in theory. In practice, things are a lot different.
So, I started searching. I was sure I was not the only one who was having these thoughts.
This is an interesting blog article on that subject. A very short one, but serves the purpose.
How Many Administrators Does It Take to Run A Hospital?
From KevinMD:
… for every one doctor there are 5 more are employed to do administrative tasks.
And, frankly, it’s ridiculous. As Dr. Cutler says, “There is a lot of money spent doing things that in no other industry do we tolerate.”
If you want to find out how many administrators it takes to run a hospital, ask yourself how many work on the weekend.
That number should be just about right.
-Wes
Once you have finished that, please see this article for more data on this and wasteful hospital expenditure
See this TED talk,
Some intersting concepts regarding Hospital design
My spine clinic website has been launched !
Find it at http://spine-india.com
All queries regarding Spine Surgery, Scoliosis, Paediatric Deformities can be posted and I will get back to you
Thanks,
Dr. Easwar
LICENSE: 
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
AuShadha Project home: http://dreaswar.github.com/AuShadha/
Dr. Easwar T.R 