Mobile Application for Patients' Waiting Time Control and Management of Diagnostic Imaging Examinations

Mobile Application for Patients' Waiting Time Control and Management of Diagnostic Imaging Examinations

Dimitrios Zarakovitis (University of Peloponnese, Greece), Dimitrios Tsoromokos (University of Peloponnese, Greece), Nikolaos Tsaloukidis (University of Peloponnese, Greece) and Athina A. Lazakidou (University of Peloponnese, Greece)
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1204-3.ch076

Abstract

Geographic information systems (GIS) are useful informative systems for reducing the waiting time of diagnostic imaging examinations. ArcGIS software is used to develop a digital questionnaire which is used as a data collection tool. The information concerns the patients' personal information, type of examination required and medical history. Data is collected in real time and through GPS capabilities, the patients' exact coordinates are determined. GIS applications are used to create digital maps which display the average waiting time for performing imaging tests. Questionnaire data and interactive maps are uploaded to a digital platform. Through this application, it is possible to locate patients who actually need diagnostic imaging examinations in real time. Observing the location of patients on digital maps makes it easier to redirect them to the nearest health care units with the shortest waiting time. Data can also be acquired by mobile phones.
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Background

Recent studies focus on the benefits of Informatics Technology (IT) in the public sector. The most commonly used information systems that are used in the public sector are the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS require a great investment in financial and human resources. They are mainly financed by public investors (Kurwakumire, 2014). In most cases, the implementation of GIS technology is used to test the efficiency of healthcare units and hospitals. They are used for analyzing and understanding the spatial dimension of health care (Topol, 2015). GIS tools enable the transformation of quantitative healthcare data to geographic objects. The process is known as geocoding and is used in data analysis (Yasobant et al., 2015). The use of GIS can solve many spatial-orientated management and planning problems (Jawad et al., 2013).

Besides all the significant benefits of using GIS mobile technologies, there are also some limitations. For example, great delays can be encountered when GIS applications access cloud services. There are also many challenges associated with GIS mobile applications and mainly is the privacy protection of owner’s data (Mehmood et al., 2015). Some papers reveal more limitations related to GIS processing of sociocultural data. In that case, the constraints refer to data exclusion and data incompatibility (Bagheri, 2014).

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