Hospital blood test to cut delays
The anticoagulant system in Beaumont Hospital will allow 2,000 patients annually to have their condition assessed within minutes.
Anticoagulants can successfully prevent strokes and chronic heart diseases and 200 patients are treated with these drugs at the Dublin hospital each week.
The ground-breaking system was designed by the Dublin-based software firm dabl® Ltd following consultation with Beaumont consultants Professor Eoin O’Brien and Dr Rory O’Donnell.
Junior Health Minister Ivor Callely yesterday launched the sophisticated computerised service that will be run by a specialist nurse and secretary.
Patients at Beaumont will now be able to attend the hospital’s phlebotomy department and have blood taken in minutes with their diagnosis and dosage details later posted to their homes.
The system has already been given the thumbs up by patients with almost nine out of 10 describing the service as excellent, according to a Deloitte and Touche survey.
Mr Callely said the technology marks a breakthrough for Irish medicine and the country has become a world leader in the development of this software.
“Beaumont’s anticoagulant service is set to play an even more vital role in the management of cardiovascular disease and prevention of stroke through the development of this exciting new world class approach,” he said.
“It is a pleasure to see that, in this instance, this world leadership has important domestic, social, as well as economic, benefits.”
Prof Eoin O’Brien said that for the past 20 years he and his colleagues had been trying to develop IT-systems to improve services at the hospital.
Bill Rickard, managing director of dabl® Limited, said the system has the potential to be developed worldwide.
The number of people using anticoagulants in Ireland is increasing by 20% annually.
