media:Patient Connect Report.pdf - Health Systems Institute

CS 8803 ICU Room of the Future
Patient Connect
Executive Summary:
The executive summary of our project is as follows:
We address the issue of the family-patient communication particularly the lack of
communication when the family members cannot be present at the bedside of the patient.
We also address the issue of the family members not being able to see the patient when the
patient himself is not conscious enough to start the communication channel.
We believe this is an important issue because emotional connection between the patient and his
loved ones is considered to be an important means for patient recovery and hence we address the
issue here.
We do this by providing a secure access to the web cameras installed in the patient’s ICU Room
via a web portal.
Since it is essentially a web portal that connects to the web cameras, the family members are able
to access it via their laptops, ipads and even smart phones and hence can be connected with their
loved ones even while traveling.
An interface is also provided to the patient at times when he is himself able to start the
communication and/or wishes to disable the communication.
We have kept this interface as simple as possible involving the least of the efforts from the
patient’s end.
We have also provided an override system interface for the nurses/hospital staff, which overrides
and disables any active communication in case of an emergency or a similar situation.
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