Making a diagnosis over the internet

Dec 3 2009 By The Journal

SOFTWARE developed in the region to give patients in remote areas instant help from medical experts is to be piloted in China.

Wearside IT firm Heridian has developed a system which offers patients in some of the poorest and more remote parts of the world access to specialist doctors via the internet.

In parts of Africa and Asia, for example, if a doctor advises a patient to visit a specialist, they may face a lengthy journey over hundreds of miles.

However, Heridian's software means an online portal puts the world's top medical specialists in direct contact with the GP surgeries which need them most.

The fledgling company has already gained global recognition for its i-Med Portal that taps into the increasingly common use of telemedicine – which has digitalised many of the diagnosis techniques used in medicine. The technology will now be trialled in China following an agreement with Shanghai-based healthcare group CNXMEDIACOMM.

Heridian’s system will be installed in the Jiangsu province early next year and will be handed over to five hospitals which will test the system for three months.

The pilot will expose the system to a patient population of 50,000 citizens. Specialist diagnostic and consultative services will be provided by hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing.

A successful pilot is likely to lead directly to a provincial-wide introduction of the technology, giving 76 million inhabitants of the area much better access to healthcare.

Heridian managing director Peter Fullarton said: "The i-MED Telemedicine Portal concept was designed specifically for this environment and we are extremely happy and excited to be working with the CNXMEDIACOMM team to bring our services to the people of China."