Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: Patients in remote areas as well as those who cannot access healthcare can now consult with doctors remotely through a mobile application which will be launched on Tuesday.
The ‘Your doctor beside you’ features a number of services to help patients and their families understand ailments they need to deal with, including the medical facilities available to them, a list of doctors available for remote consultation, guidelines for patient home care, and many others.
The first of the seven sections, titled ‘Health Facilities’, provides users information on all government and private healthcare facilities in the country, including hospitals, clinics, optometrists, dentists, labs and pharmacies.
The second section is called ‘Consult your Doctor’ and contains a list of medical practitioners that patients and their families can consult with, either through voice or video calls. Doctors can use this service to explain patients’ ailments to them and advice on treatment options they can follow.
Patients can, through the third available option, request from doctors a home consultation. Called ‘Your Doctor Beside You’, this option contains a list of medical professionals in the area available for a home consult, or wherever else the patient might be.
Families of patients as well as their home carers would do well to explore the fourth section, titled ‘Home Healthcare’ that also contains procedures that support health workers such as nurses, physiotherapists and other related specialists can adhere to. It also provides options for continued care and follow-up consults.
The fifth section, ‘Life Coaching.’ allows users to have a confidential conversation with a life coach to help identify their personality, define their goals, and develop a plan to achieve them by drawing a clear path to discover and refine their talents and skills, with the aim of making fundamental changes to their professional and personal life.
The sixth section, called ‘Emergency Cases’, concerns quickly providing help to patients by showing them the nearest available healthcare facility, which includes access to paramedics, doctors, or ambulance, arranged by the proximity of the patient to these services.
The seventh section, ‘Health Education,’ includes important instructional videos for emergencies, which guides users in following the right behaviour in such cases, helps increase people’s medical awareness, and contains important public announcements from the Ministry of Health or the World Health Organization.
“Your Doctor Beside You” aims to train families in basic skills to help them take care of their patients, in the present and future, thereby helping enhance the latter’s safety and comfort. This also helps ensure quality care at home, leading to shorter stays and avoiding repeated visits to hospitals.
This application will also contribute to providing home healthcare to the patient after surgeries, once they’ve been discharged from the hospital, and care for patients who are bedridden and suffer from bed sores.
It will also save them the time spent waiting in hospitals to obtain medical service, aside from the many other conveniences of home healthcare.
The smartphone application will be officially launched on Tuesday, January 26, under the patronage of Redha bin Juma Al Saleh, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), at the organisation’s headquarters in Ruwi.
