 Greg
Gore is Vice President of Praxis International, Inc.Technical Training, Consulting, and Publishing since 1988
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Doctor Combines High Tech, High Touch to Medicine |
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In Megatrends, the milestone, best-selling book published twenty years ago, author John Naisbitt coined the phrase “high tech, high touch” to describe how our increasing love and dependence on technology leaves us with an increasing feeling that we are losing touch with ourselves, nature and fellow human beings. Naisbitt’s concept has proven to be so popular and enduring that last year he published a new book, High Tech/High Touch, to delve deeper into this dichotomy. Dr. Anshul Gambhir established his medical practice, Chester County Family Medicine, with the philosophy that he could provide superior medical care by being both “high tech” and “high touch.” Dr. Gambhir employs the latest computer and Internet technology to give his patients kind and compassionate care coupled with the most up-to-date medical treatments. A Philadelphia native, Dr. Gambhir received his M.D. from Temple Medical School and completed further medical training within the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Coming from an entrepreneurial, high tech family background (his older brother is president of a London-based software development firm), he studied business as an undergraduate and received his B.S. degree from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania prior to entering medical school. Dr. Gambhir’s website, www.ccfamilymedicine.com, contains a host of innovative and useful features for patients and visitors. On his website there are links to a medical dictionary, surgical procedure information, disease information, and over-the-counter drug information. The fact that he welcomes and encourages email communication from patients is another demonstration of his patient focus. In the near future, he also plans to implement a web-based appointment scheduling feature whereby patients can view available appointment times and then self-schedule their own appointments. In the management of his practice, Dr. Gambhir has essentially eliminated paper documents by making extensive use of computers, the Internet, and a Visor PDA using the Palm-based operating system. He uses SOAPware (www.soapware.com), an electronic medical record software system, for his patient record keeping. With this system, he has immediate access to patient summaries, histories, and lab/radiology/pathology reports, which he can quickly review and update on each patient encounter. In addition, SOAPware has over 250 prebuilt, customizable protocols that serve as starting points for his own documentation guidelines. As an example, the prebuilt protocols include the various screening tests (prostate, PAP smear, mammogram, colon, etc.) that are recommended for men and women at various ages and intervals. Also, SOAPware includes information, treatment plans and codes for thousands of prescriptions. Lastly, the system streamlines the billing process and ensures greater accuracy. All of these features save time and therefore allow Dr. Gambhir to spend more one-on-one quality time with patients. Using his computer, Dr. Gambhir has immediate access to Chester County Hospital medical records and lab reports. One of the big benefits of his computer-based system for patients is that Dr. Gambhir can email test results to patients and consulting physicians as soon as he has reviewed them. Moreover, if one of his patients is in the hospital’s emergency room, he can get immediate information on the patient’s status. Similarly, Dr. Gambhir can forward a patient’s records to the emergency room via a fax server. Dr. Gambhir emphasizes that patient records are very private and secure and that state-of-the-art back-up systems are in place in the event of fire or other disaster. From the serial port on his computer, Dr. Gambhir runs a sophisticated digital EKG that can also function as a mini-Holter monitoring device for longer-term measurements. The test results can instantly be emailed to consulting physicians anywhere and they can be accessed from a laptop if a consulting physician is traveling. When he is away from his offices in Exton and Kennett Square, Dr. Gambhir relies on his Visor PDA. He can download much of the information on his desktop to his PDA. During his patient rounds at hospitals and assisted living facilities, he uses “WardWatch,” (www.torlesse.com/pilot/wardwatch), a Palm-based program designed to record patient investigations, medications, dosages, and consultations. The Visor also stores a wealth of medical information including three medical textbooks; “ePocrates,” (www.epocrates.com), a prescription drug database of over 2,600 drugs that Dr. Gambhir keeps continuously updated over the Internet with the touch of a button; and, a proprietary database of conditions, symptoms (such as “numb chin”), and diseases that Dr. Gambhir is building. Dr. Anshul Gambhir is proving that “high tech” and “high touch” can co-exist on an equal basis to result in “high quality” patient care. _________ The Greg Gore Web Site on Computers and the Internet (www.GregGore.com) This
column was published in the Daily Local News, West Chester, PA on
July 17, 2002. Greg Gore can
be reached at gg@GregGore.com. ©
2009 by Greg Gore. All rights reserved. |