Final year projects (Baccalaureus Theses) (Industrial Engineering)

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Browsing Final year projects (Baccalaureus Theses) (Industrial Engineering) by Subject "Cardiology"

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    The telemedicine system to increase patient’s access to specialised cardiac care for assisting remote diagnosis.
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2010-10) Triegaardt, M.; Van Dyk, L.; Doubell, A. F.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Cardiology refers to the specialised study of heart disorders and is a focused field of knowledge practiced by cardiologists. Due to the specialised nature of cardiology, treatment is not given as idely and effectively in populated and under-resourced areas, like South Africa. In the public health sector there are too many cardiac patients and not enough doctors with the necessary expertise to attend to their needs. Cardiac specialists that are situated only in urban areas in South Africa, cannot attend to the needs of all the rural cardiac patients Therefore, cardiac specialists assist rural doctors in diagnosing patients remotely. The assistance currently offered is not optimal and patients do not get the needed tertiary specialist care that is available in urban areas. For specialists to provide assistance they have to fully understand they patient’s medical condition and therefore all the necessary patient data has to be transferred to the specialist. The various factors limiting the transfer of patient data and therefore also the patient’s access to tertiary care cardiac is the patient’s location relative to the specialist, the methods used to communicate patient data, human error in the diagnostic process, the complex nature of the diagnostic data , limited data transfer capabilities, the cost and the limitations of technology used. For the purpose of this study Tygerberg hospital will be used as the tertiary hospital and Eben Dönges hospital in Worcester as the rural hospital. The current situation at both hospitals was assessed and the structure used for communication between the two institutions was documented. It was found that the technology is being used to share patient data, such as faxes and telephone calls, results in an unnecessarily protracted process. The restrictions which limit the current system were identified. It was found that outdated technology is used to share patient data because there is no faster communication network and because patient data is complex and files are large. The existing and potential technology was explored to formulate alternatives namely: electronic transfer of files in DICOM format; compressing the DICOM files with MPEG and JPEG before electronic transfer; implementing a PACS intranet between hospitals; and lastly to use DICOM viewers on workstations to view the DICOM patient data. Ultimately, the possible solutions and their feasibility were explored using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to illustrate that a DICOM viewer in conjunction with a PACS intranet is the best solution to increase a remote patient’s access to a specialist’s knowledge. If a PACS in conjunction with a DICOM viewer is implemented the effectiveness of data transfer procedure is increased, since data is always accessible via the PACS intranet and the DICOM viewer Chapter: Synopsis iv software allows post processing of DICOM files. The duration of the procedure is decreased for the doctor at Eben Dönges hospital, since files are automatically transferred to the central PACS server after study is completed; and for the specialist at Tygerberg Hospital time is saved since he can view the diagnostic images on a mobile device. The biggest cost for the solutions will be to implement a network between the hospitals and to acquire the PACS software license. The DICOM viewer software is free to download. The alternative is user-friendly since minimal effort has to be made to transfer data and the DICOM viewer user interface is simple to operate. This option enhances secondary and tertiary education most since DICOM files can be viewed on any standard of the self hardware with a DICOM viewer installed. Ethical or legal issues can develop with exchange of confidential patient information, but due to patient data only being connected to the patient MRN in the PACS system of Tygerberg, no patient’s confidentiality will be breached.