ICC Healthcare Initiatives explores the Role of Evidence based Medicine in improving Patient Outcomes
News Reporter, Takmaa, Kolkata, 30th Sept 2021 : Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) recently organised a virtual event #ICCHealthcareInitiatives on evidence-basedmedicine. The objective of the event was to initiate a peer-to-peer discussion around the importance of Evidence based Medicine (EBM), the benefits and challenges of the implementation of Clinician Decision Support System (CDSS) in the treatment regime. The event was attended by several leaders from Government, medical fraternity, and health technology industry.The chief guest of the event was Prof. (Dr.) Debasish Bhattacharya, Director.
Mr. Harish Ramachandran, Country Manager, Clinical Effectiveness, Wolters Kluwer, India highlighted, “In my view, CDSS essentially takes care of two parameters, i.e., providing value for the entire care team and ensuring improved patient outcomes. Here technology plays a crucial role for providing easy accessibility. For example, in UpToDate the clinician gets constant feedback and alerts. Also, it provides prompt searches and bookmarks to access clinical evidence in no time. The idea is to enable clinicians to arrive at a decision easily at point of care. They can also integrate it with EMR as we move towards a cloud-based infrastructure. Furthermore, UpToDate has guidelines from India, which is regularly updated, for the reference of the users. Several Indian physicians’ author for UpToDate, making it a concentrated effort while moving forward to strengthen our ecosystem.”
Prof. Dr. Kameshwar Prasad, Padma Shri Recipient, Director, RIMS, Ranchi, Former Head of Neuroscience Department, AIIMS, New Delhi emphasised by saying,” COVID-19 propelled digitization across healthcare, that prompted the adoption of Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). Tools like UpToDate give out a summary of evidence for the treatment regime. If a clinician is writing a prescription, the computer will prompt for the corrections in case the prescription is inconsistent or does not match with the guidelines.
The discussion also highlighted that lack of practical knowledge triggers medical errors, which still stands up to be a massive concern in our healthcare delivery. Therefore, an evidence-based medicine approach with the implementation of CDSS is expected to pave way for improved patient and clinical outcomes. The journey of evidence-based practise is perhaps a slow but steady one. If we train the existing clinicians and the new medical graduates to streamline the data efficiently, evidence-based medicine can redefine the healthcare ecosystem.
The event was also attended by Dr. Amitabh Saha, Consultant, Internal Medicine & Critical Care, Dr. Harsh V. Agarwal, Specialist, Internal Medicine, Woodlands Multi Speciality Hospitals. Publicity : Eastman Communications.
