Medical System Improvement – Visualization Tool

Challenge:

During to the COVID - 19 pandemic and my family’s health at stake, I regularly visited a nearby hospital  for a week. Therein, where I first perceived this challenge of drips being given to patients. Now, that  drip can be used to either give liquid food supply to the patient or medicine injected into it.

But, the problem was the pandemic had put an immense pressure on the hospital’s resources and  there was a huge staff crunch. Staff to Patient ratio was almost 1:13 !! This led to a lot of errors in  giving timely drip to the patient since the Intravenous Injection System requires manual effort &  regular checking. Also, if not monitored properly & the drip is for a longer duration inside the patient,  it could lead to complexities caused by the backflow of blood

Therefore, I thought otherwise of why not try to automate this entire process!

Selection:

Since, I was in college and had a technological background, I started to visualize of all the possibilities.  Hence, the tool of Visualization was used before identifying and defining the possible solutions to the  challenge. The visualisation too is simply to understand the scope, boundaries, and limitations of this  manual IV process and helped me to better understand the pain points and opportunities for  improvements or solutions. I often used this while solving any assignment questions as well in college  and with my peers if they seek any advice.

Application:

I started by simply utilizing my time at the hospital on observing the challenges and jotting them  visually on a paper (straw man graphic type). Then I drew the linkages in between the relationships.  To develop the straw man graphic, I drew from the existing resources available and understood the  surrounding of a hospital (intense work pressure & matter of life and death).

•  I trickled the main areas of concerns like:

•  Rising COVID Cases

•  Overstressed Ground Nurses

•  Limited Resources &Staff

•  Unprepared Health Infrastructure

•  COVID Norms (Social Distancing)

After my family fully recovered, I went back regularly to check & observe. I even tried to interview few  helpers/staff as my main points of contact on the initiative. Since I had decent knowledge on mobile  app creation and development, due to my educational background, I tried to formulate a code for  automating the entire process depicted as below –

There will be an automatic alarm whenever the patient needed the dripping system which will be  routed onto the staff through their pager or a wrist band watch and signal them to attend the patient.  Thus, forming an effective reactive system. Though I could apply the app system on one person basis  through a mobile phone, but due to the lack of many such smart devices, I couldn’t completely  implement my idea.

Insight:

I truly enjoyed visualising this entire challenge and learnt that design thinking approach is highly  effective. It helped me to break down the problem into smaller sub parts so that I can effectively tackle  each part & not get worried due to the enormity of the challenge. Also, one of the insight was that the  management at the hospital were itself trying their best to tackle the sudden rise of cases and thus  were focussing on automating many domains. Moreover, a beautiful insight was drawn from one of  the nurses who was involved in the process was that, though how much so ever automation is brought  in, but we as humans always try to take care of the patient through that humanly gesture & personal  interaction, they get better that way more!

Approach:

Definitely each problem has many ways to solve it, so not that time when I was at the hospital, but  later on I pondered over the many alternative solutions which were possible and as follows:

•  Monitoring by specially hired caretakers

•  Frequent Visits by family members themselves to keep a check on the patient

•  Self-monitoring if possible and not that serious

•  Entirely Smart Alert Monitoring system integrated with the hospital’s main system

Many of the times, I prefer using this visualization tool since it has given me one of the best results till

now!


Medical System Improvement – Visualization Tool Challenge : During to the COVID - 19 pandemic and my family ’s health at stake , I regularly visited a nearby hospital for a week . Therein , where I first perceived this challenge of drips being given to patients . Now , that drip can be used to either give liquid food supply to the patient or medicine injected into it . But , the problem was the pandemic had put an immense pressure on the hospital ’s resources and there was a huge staff crunch . Staff to Patient ratio was almost 1:13 ! ! This led to a lot of errors in giving timely drip to the patient since the Intravenous Injection System requires manual effort & regular checking . Also , if not monitored properly & the drip is for a longer duration inside the patient , it could lead to complexities caused by the backflow of blood Therefore , I thought otherwise of why not try to automate this entire process ! Selection : Since , I was in college and had a technological background , I started to visualize of all the possibilities . Hence , the tool of Visualization was used before identifying and defining the possible solutions to the challenge . The visualisation too is simply to understand the scope , boundaries , and limitations of this manual IV process and helped me to better understand the pain points and opportunities for improvements or solutions . I often used this while solving any assignment questions as well in college and with my peers if they seek any advice . Application : I started by simply utilizing my time at the hospital on observing the challenges and jotting them visually on a paper ( straw man graphic type ) . Then I drew the linkages in between the relationships . To develop the straw man graphic , I drew from the existing resources available and understood the surrounding of a hospital ( intense work pressure & matter of life and death ) . • I trickled the main areas of concerns like : • Rising COVID Cases • Overstressed Ground Nurses • Limited Resources & Staff • Unprepared Health Infrastructure • COVID Norms ( Social Distancing ) After my family fully recovered , I went back regularly to check & observe . I even tried to interview few helpers / staff as my main points of contact on the initiative . Since I had decent knowledge on mobile app creation and development , due to my educational background , I tried to formulate a code for automating the entire process depicted as below – There will be an automatic alarm whenever the patient needed the dripping system which will be routed onto the staff through their pager or a wrist band watch and signal them to attend the patient . Thus , forming an effective reactive system . Though I could apply the app system on one person basis through a mobile phone , but due to the lack of many such smart devices , I could n’t completely implement my idea . Insight : I truly enjoyed visualising this entire challenge and learnt that design thinking approach is highly effective . It helped me to break down the problem into smaller sub parts so that I can effectively tackle each part & not get worried due to the enormity of the challenge . Also , one of the insight was that the management at the hospital were itself trying their best to tackle the sudden rise of cases and thus were focussing on automating many domains . Moreover , a beautiful insight was drawn from one of the nurses who was involved in the process was that , though how much so ever automation is brought in , but we as humans always try to take care of the patient through that humanly gesture & personal interaction , they get better that way more ! Approach : Definitely each problem has many ways to solve it , so not that time when I was at the hospital , but later on I pondered over the many alternative solutions which were possible and as follows : • Monitoring by specially hired caretakers • Frequent Visits by family members themselves to keep a check on the patient • Self - monitoring if possible and not that serious • Entirely Smart Alert Monitoring system integrated with the hospital ’s main system Many of the times , I prefer using this visualization tool since it has given me one of the best results till now !