It is a proven fact that technology can play a critical role in efficiently managing pandemics like COVID-19. Most importantly, it plays a key role in keeping the doctors and paramedics uninfected thus ensuring their uninterrupted services when they are badly needed in times like these.
In line with this, to sharpen the country's fight against COVID-19, DocMode in collaboration with Dr. Sanjith Saseedharan, a renowned doctor, today unveiled iNutrimon, a patented web-based application for doctors and dieticians to calculate nutrition among critical care patients including those battling the novel coronavirus.
In affirmation of support to medical fraternity battling the pandemic, the nutrition app is being offered free of cost to hospitals across the country for the first six months.
"At this juncture, the country needs the services of doctors and paramedics. They shouldn't be exposed to unsafe conditions at any cost. It is for this reason we're offering the app free since it would keep our doctors and paramedics safe while managing a pandemic like COVID-19. The hospitals would find it very useful," said DocMode Founder and CEO Hans Lewis.
At a time when hospitals are facing shortage of PPE kits and are restricting HCPs entry to ICUs and wards insisting that they instead work from home, iNutrimon would come in handy in providing safe and evidence-based nutrition to patients helping in their speedy recovery. Healthcare professionals can make use of iNutrimon even while working from home or away from hospital wards.
The app conforms to GLM criteria and helps doctors, dieticians and other healthcare professionals in assessing malnutrition status among COVID-19 patients. Further, it has also embedded into it COVID-19 guidelines as per ESPEN and micronutrient suggestions for TPN.
"This suggests the amount of calories, proteins to be provided for Enteral as well as TPN. All these help in nutrition intervention, and later HCPs would also be able to use the derived data for research on the role nutrition plays in treating COVID-19 patients," said Dr. Sanjith Saseedharan, Head ICU Department, S.L. Raheja Hospital, a Fortis Associate, after launching the app.
Patient meal planning, experts concede, can be a time-consuming process and developed countries are already resorting to AI tools replacing the use of ineffective and archaic methods.
"The new way is quick, easy and fully customised. It helps monitor and create a comprehensive diet-prescription chart in less than four minutes per patient. But, if you use the traditional method, it would take about 40 minutes," added Paulson Paul - Founder and COO, DocMode.
What is more, the iNutrimon adheres to the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) and European Society for Clinical Nutrition & Metabolism (ESPEN) guidelines in calculating nutrition requirement in critically ill patients including those suffering from COVID-19.
"We've started using iNutrimon at our hospital. This technology is very convenient. It reduces risks like underfeeding, overfeeding and excess fluid-intake. It also documents the patients' nutrition intake," Dr. Sanjith Saseedharan added.
Optimum nutrition, providing all nutrients in both kind and amount, is the cornerstone of good health and cutting edge of prevention. Nutritional knowledge is of particular importance to healthcare professionals if they are to succeed in significantly reducing excessive premature morbidity and mortality from leading killer diseases like heart disease, cancer, strokes.
iNutrimon allows doctors and paramedics to track both macro and micro-nutrient intakes through Daily Nutrient Tracker. The app also lets you select foods, beverages and supplements across various national food databases across the world. Thus, it allows you to select from several pre-designed meal templates based on individual patient requirements.
According to Dr. Saseedharan critical care staff spend too much time calculating patient feeds, deriving the evidence and data points, which helps in fine-tuning the entire feeding and patient management. This app, the doctor said, helps in reducing the length of stay in critical care.
This user-friendly app is not only economical but can also access different patient records from anywhere. This app is high on security and follows HIPPA guidelines. So, the patient data is 100 percent safe.
Hospitals that want to make use of the iNutrimon app can register free by logging into www.inutrimon.com.
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( With inputs from ANI )