Kampala, Uganda | ENTEBBENEWS.NET | Chil Group has launched a digital health platform that will allow specialists in urban medical centres to provide real-time inpatient care to patients in rural health facilities, it said in a media release on Sept.3.
The E-Ward Round Platform is designed to connect rural doctors and nurses with urban-based specialists through virtual multidisciplinary ward rounds, reducing the need for patients to travel long distances to access specialised medical care.
The platform is expected to be deployed across nearly 400 health facilities that work with Chil Group.
The company says 67% of its partner facilities have inpatient capacity, representing more than 260 medical wards. However, many rural facilities continue to face shortages of specialised health professionals, including cardiologists, neurologists and intensivists.
Dr Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chil Group, said technology can help address the geographical barriers that prevent patients from accessing specialised care.
“Patients should not have to travel hundreds of kilometers to access specialized medical care when technology can bring that expertise directly to them,” she said.
Kaliisa said Chil Group had spent the past six years developing B2B telemedicine solutions focused mainly on outpatient services, but the company was now expanding its digital healthcare services to inpatient care.
“The E-Ward Round Platform represents the next step in our mission to make quality healthcare more accessible across Africa,” she said.
The E-Ward Round Platform is integrated with medical devices to enable remote specialists to access real-time patient information during virtual ward rounds.
The information available to clinicians includes vital signs, diagnostic data and digital medical records, allowing specialists to work alongside local doctors and nurses in assessing and managing patients.
The platform also incorporates an artificial intelligence-powered triage system that continuously analyses patient data and vital-sign trends.
New data platform
According to Chil Group, the system helps medical teams identify and prioritise patients requiring urgent attention, potentially improving the efficiency of ward rounds.
The platform is also designed to bring different forms of clinical information together, enabling doctors to review vital signs, diagnostic images and patients’ digital health records during consultations.
Chil Group said data privacy and security have been incorporated into the platform’s design.
The company said its zero-knowledge architecture assigns each inpatient bed a dynamic cryptographic token, allowing clinical data to be processed without exposing patients’ identities.
Personal information is only accessible to authorised clinicians when required for patient management, according to the company.
The new platform builds on Chil Group’s existing B2B telemedicine infrastructure and expands its services from outpatient consultations to inpatient management.
The company says the combination of remote specialist expertise, connected medical devices, artificial intelligence and electronic medical records could help reduce disparities in access to specialised healthcare between urban and rural areas.
The E-Ward Round Module is available for deployment across Chil Group’s partner health facilities with inpatient capacity.
Chil Group currently serves nearly 400 health facilities through its telemedicine and health infrastructure solutions.
The company provides electronic medical record software at no cost and offers virtual care modules intended to support healthcare networks in extending services to patients regardless of their location.
The launch comes as health providers increasingly explore digital technologies as a way of connecting patients and frontline health workers with specialised expertise that may not be available locally.
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