Renowned heart surgeon M.R. Girinath has called upon hospitals to develop digital archive of patient records so that doctors can recall a patient’s medical history in a moment’s notice.
“These days, when thousands of types of heart surgeries are being done, we have to realise the value of having such archive. My regret is that this is yet to be done in a big way,” he said here on Friday.
Dr. Girinath was speaking on ‘Life in cardiac surgery’ at the inaugural function of two-day national conference ‘Mid-term cardiac CME’, being organised by Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS) with the support of Apollo Speciality Hospitals.
He said digital archives would preserve records such as ECG, angiogram and echo test, and a doctor could instantly access them.
He said India had come a long way from the days when hospitals did not have proper equipment for heart surgeries.
“I returned to India from abroad in 1973, worked in the Railway Hospital, Chennai, and (later) joined Apollo at the insistence of Pratap C. Reddy. In the last 30 years of my life in Apollo Hospital, we could manage to do 45,000 heart surgeries,” Dr. Girinath said.
“In the early days of my career, I learnt that cost-cutting measures in surgery would lead to compromise in patient’s safety,” he added.
Earlier inaugurating the conference, B. Santhakumar, Dean, Government Rajaji Hospital, said budding cardiac surgeons could learn more about the heart through this conference addressed by experts from across the country.
V. Sridhar, organising chairman of the conference and chief cardiac surgeon at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Madurai, said updating medical knowledge became essential due to exponential growth in treatment. “Increasingly well-informed patients demand the best from doctors. Surgical specialities need arduous training,” he added.
S. Rajan, secretary, IACTS, Rohini Sridhar, Chief Operating Officer, Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Madurai, and N. Bala Nayagam, Head, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, GRH, also spoke.
This conference is organised in commemoration of 50 years of service by the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of Madurai Medical College.
