Halle University Medicine is launching a digital offer for patients for initial medical assessments
20.04.2023 13:26
Especially during the off-peak periods of primary care, patients often feel insecure when assessing their own symptoms. Can my symptoms wait until tomorrow? Should I contact the emergency medical service or go straight to the emergency room?
In order to provide quick and reliable assistance with these questions, Halle University Medicine is now providing a web-based support system for a safe and quick initial assessment: the “Digital Health Guide”. Using a questionnaire, the software evaluates symptoms and possible previous illnesses and makes a recommendation for the optimal time and level of care.
“Our goal is to better manage patients in tiered regional care through evidence-based, digital recommendations,” explains project manager Jens Schneider. “In this way, we not only enable appropriate care at the right time, we also give people more security when it comes to medical questions and relieve the workload on emergency room employees. This is the only way we can improve the quality of care and make the best possible use of medical resources in emergency medicine.”
Offer for structured medical self- and initial assessment
On the website of the University Medical Center Halle (www.uk-halle.de/gesundheitslotse) adult patients and their relatives will now receive a structured medical self-assessment and initial assessment around the clock and via any device that can access the Internet. It is intended to help reduce uncertainty about the severity of one's own illness, to warn of possible medical emergencies and to make recommendations regarding the necessity and urgency of further medical treatment.
“The Digital Health Guide does not, of course, replace the anamnesis discussion with doctors in a practice or emergency room,” assures senior physician Frank Noack, deputy head of the Central emergency room of the University Hospital Halle (Saale). “However, with the use of modern technologies, we can now create an offer that helps people decide whether and how urgently a visit to the doctor or clinic is necessary. Through this prioritization, we prevent patients from underestimating their symptoms when there is an acute need for action and at the same time we can shorten waiting times in the emergency room for everyone.”
Learning, closed artificial intelligence
The “Digital Health Lottery” from the University Medical Center Halle is a learning, closed artificial intelligence and is based on the certified medical product SMASS (Swiss Medical Assessment System). It was implemented together with the aQua Institute for Applied Quality Promotion and Research in Healthcare, the Swiss medical device manufacturer in4medicine and its subsidiary, HCQS GmbH. The survey is anonymous and personal data is not stored during the survey. Only the content entered for the self-assessment can be saved locally by the user for their own documents.
In a second expansion stage, it is planned to use the “Digital Health Guide” from late summer 2023 after registration in the central emergency room and a structured initial assessment during the waiting period to forward important additional information to the treating doctors.
The “Digital Health Guide” is being implemented as one of four forward-looking digitalization projects at the University Medical Center Halle as part of the Hospital Future Act (KHZG). The KHZG is an investment program that is intended to advance the digitalization of hospitals. The aim is to create modern emergency capacities and to optimize the digital infrastructure and IT security in hospitals in order to ensure and increase the long-term quality of care. The federal government and the state of Saxony-Anhalt are supporting the University Medical Center in Halle with around 5 million euros.