openEHR
Brotzu hospital in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy is using an application for COVID-19 medical data collection. The application is based on Better Platform and it was developed by our partner company Inpeco in only ten days. We spoke with Paolo Anedda, Head of Innovation Projects at Inpeco, about the benefits of the application, development process with Better Platform, the inclusion of healthcare professionals and the role of openEHR community.
The goal of the project was to provide clinical tools to assist the collection of medical data for the assessment of the risk of COVID-19 infection. Inpeco developed an application that enables healthcare professionals to collect data that is used for an initial screening for the assessment of the risk of COVID-19 infection. This data is linked to the results of laboratory tests for patients undergoing an oropharyngeal swab.
The main benefit of this application is that the healthcare professionals have timely and precise data of the population to whom the questionnaire was submitted. Furthermore, the data obtained with screening and clinical data from laboratories can be used for subsequent epidemiological studies.
The solution is currently used in the Brotzu hospital in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. The aim is to extend its adoption to the regional blood collection centres and clinical facilities.
Better Platform tools enabled fast and agile development process. Paolo Anedda explained: “From the implementation point of view, Better Platform was the real turning point. It took us only ten days from the moment we decided to participate in the initiative to the delivery of the first functional version of the application. I believe that without the Better Platform and its tools, we would never have made it.”
Paolo Anedda also emphasized the crucial role of healthcare professionals during the development process: “They must be included immediately in the data modelling process. To facilitate this process, we found it very useful to use the Better EHR Studio’s form render to help clinicians understand the results of the modelling work, allowing us to immediately interpret and validate the feedback they wanted to give us.”
openEHR community efforts were very beneficial in the development process as well. “Adopting a solution based on openEHR was a winning choice because it allowed us to respond quickly and accurately to a need born in a situation of full emergency. I believe that openEHR's greatest strength lies in its community, which was able to provide substantial support in this pandemic and in a very short time by making all community know-how available. This had been very useful for us because it allowed us to significantly shorten the time needed to understand the problem and propose a solution,” said Paolo Anedda.
For more information watch the video-interview here:
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