Cloudphysician deploys 24*7 tele-ICU solution at 2nd hospital in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Government of Karnataka has partnered with Cloudphysician, India’s indigenously developed 24*7 tele-ICU, to offer its services in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS). Cloudphysician provides solutions to manage critically ill COVID-19 patients using intensive EMR, audio-visuals, and alert systems. Cloudphysician enables hospitals to have their beds and their patient data remotely monitored via real-time audiovisual tools and internet-connected sensors while giving hospitals access to highly qualified remote intensivists and nurses.

In Karnataka, Cloudphysician first went live in the district hospital in Ramanagara where 36 beds are monitored through the platform. At GIMS, a total of 26 beds, out of the 70 beds in the hospital will have access to 11 specially trained doctors called intensivists and nurses 24*7.

Dr C. N. Ashwathnarayan, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Higher Education, Information Technology & Biotechnology and Science & Technology in the Government of Karnataka envisaged using the solutions of Cloudphysician in hospitals across Karnataka to ensure that maximum patients have access to ICU and intensivists across the state.

Javaid Akhtar IAS, ACS Health, T.K.Anil Kumar, Principal Secretary Medical education and Pankaj Pandey, commissioner Health, have supported and welcomed the initiative.

This project is spearheaded by Dr Thrilok Chandra, IAS, Special officer, State Critical care support unit who has ensured seamless collaboration between the health-tech platform and the hospitals.

Dr Thrilok Chandra said, “Karnataka has been in the forefront in establishing tele- ICU facility for all government hospitals. This is a novel initiative in partnership with ACT Grants, for establishing a modern tele-ICU facility in Gulbarga.”

Cloudphysician received a grant in May 2020 from ACT Grants. ACT Grants is a INR 100cr not-for-profit grant created to empower teams that are harnessing technology to create large-scale impact in the detection, prevention and eradication of Covid-19.

Mr. Prashanth Prakash, ACT spokesperson said, “Cloudphysician has very effectively leveraged technology to make ICU services available to remote locations during this global crisis and supported the current healthcare infrastructure.  At ACT Grants, our main objective is to support ideas which will create immediate impact to combat Covid-19. We believe that Cloudphysician will soon scale and provide a strong support to the healthcare ecosystem across India.”

Cloudphysician uses an in-house platform called ‘RADAR’ which connect the tele-ICU to an off-site command centre, where a critical care team, comprising of intensivists and nurses are connected with patients in distant ICUs through real-time audio, visual and electronic means, and health information is exchanged. Cloudphysician, which was launched in 2017 by Dr. Joshi and Dr. Raman is currently live in 19 hospitals across 7 states.

Dr Dileep Raman, Co-Founder, Cloudphysician, said, “India has just 4,500 specialists who can work in ICUs and healthcare facilities are highly understaffed to deal with the projected massive influx of critically ill patients. However, 90% of decisions around treating COVID19 patients can be taken based on data alone. Cloudphysician uses its tele-ICU solution, RADAR, as a force multiplier where one intensivist can take care of 80 patients at a time. This reduces exposure of individuals by decreasing the touch points with the patient in-turn reducing the PPE requirement. We have started providing tele-ICU support in two hospitals in Karnataka and aim to expand this facility to 500 beds across India in the near future.”