Link: Channelnewsasia.com
SINGAPORE: Surgeons at Tan Tock Seng Hospital can now receive critical laboratory test results via SMS on their mobile phones. The National Healthcare Group said this is the first of such system in the world.
Another nifty use of text messaging. Not sure whether extending it to patients as well would work – would you want to know something was abnormal with a recent medical test or similar by text?
Maybe the system could use the best of both worlds: In a situation where results are clear and the doctor’s phone call would only consist of “you’re all clear!”, then use the SMS-based system, while if the patient’s results aren’t so clear, it gets added to the doctor’s queue of calls to make, so that there is a human available to answer the patient’s concerns when giving them their results.
It’s good to see some countries make use of technology to support its medical staff. Seeing as the NHS can’t make heads from tails of even the most basic computer-based appointments system, we’re still a far cry from catching up with Singapore.