IoT-enabled devices have facilitated remote monitoring in healthcare industry: Arun Goyal, CIO, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital

In an exclusive interaction with Express Computer, Arun Goyal, Chief Information Officer, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital speaks about some of the recent digital initiatives that have been implemented in the hospital, the role of IoT and artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector and his thoughts on telemedicine.  

• What are some of the recent digital initiatives you have taken and what have been the impacts?

Some of the recent digital initiatives that we have taken are: 

• Implementing a DMS application in our hospital which has really helped us in supervising and governing all the critical pieces of information and documents in an organised manner. Also, giving us the sheer benefit of managing it from a central location in spite of having multiple departments and buildings. 
• Domain Name System (DNS)  is the protocol that makes the internet usable by allowing the use of domain names. It basically translates the internet domain into internet protocol addresses. 
• We have introduced  BI Analytics tool by creating a data lake over HIS & ERP, which has helped our hospital in bestowing real-time data transfer, advanced medical data analysis and visualisation. Also, helped us a great deal in monetary, security, and performance assessment and for advanced patient care analysis. 
• We have also enhanced the current Hospital Information System (HIS) which has facilitated in providing easy access to patient information, reducing the count of medical errors, increased patient satisfaction and in improving the overall quality of healthcare facilities. 
• Electronic Medical Records (EMR) implementation across OPDs has shown positive impacts on patient care and also proved to be highly beneficial for the physicians at our hospital. For instance, a doctor can gaze into the comprehensive medical history of the patient which may help in better diagnosis and faster solutions as less time is spent searching for old reports and results.
• How do you see the role of  AI and IoT in improving the overall efficiency of hospitals?

• Artificial Intelligence can help in designing and implementing Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) and improve operational assistance. AI based CDSS has the potential to manage large sets of data and propose next steps for diagnosis, treatment, suggest possible issues and boost overall performance in hospitals. 
• Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices have enabled remote monitoring in the healthcare industry. IoT has also made the patients interactions with physicians far more satisfactory and seamless.
• What efforts has your hospital made with respect to telemedicine? And, your thoughts on the evolution of telemedicine in the healthcare sector.  

Ever since the onset of Covid- 19 pandemic, there has been a constant push at the government level to increase the access of telemedicine facilities in healthcare units, including our hospital as well. We have implemented a telemedicine facility for our patients.

According to me, telemedicine is highly beneficial in giving the less privileged people the access to good quality healthcare, which empowers a patient to get treatment by the physician, irrespective of his/hers physical location. We at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi have done quite a bit for the people in Himachal Pradesh by leveraging telemedicine. 

I think the field of telemedicine is inevitably going to expand and be adopted by more and more medical practitioners in the near future due to its convenience, reach and caliber. However, I also feel that no matter how much telemedicine has progressed in current times with newer technologies; the benefits of in-person consultation and emergency medicine surely outweighs.   

• The ransomware attack on AIMMS was a shocker to the healthcare industry in India. How do you plan to protect against such cyber crimes in hospitals?

Yes, we are sensitive towards the security, we have planned BCP and set up DR and secured the gateway, endpoint and DNS to make sure such attacks could be minimised.