Sultan Qaboos University Hospital Implements Telehealth Consultations with The Use of InterSystems TrakCare and Google Meet

Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) has implemented a telehealth platform to meet the increase in demand for remote visits in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, leveraging the successful integration between InterSystems TrakCare® and Google Meet.

TrakCare is a unified healthcare information system that provides clinicians with a holistic view of each patient’s clinical, administrative, and financial information at any given time on any authorized internet-connected device.

Located in Muscat, Oman, SQUH was established in 1990 to provide undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching, research, and medical care in a patient friendly atmosphere and in a spirit of compassion to the community. Since opening its doors, the 500-bed tertiary care University Teaching Hospital has provided a dedicated patient care and endeavors to improve its services on a constant, ongoing basis.

The hospital provides a full continuum of patient-centered care, beginning with complete clinical evaluation, to meet the needs of each patient at each stage of treatment. SQUH currently provides several unique services and certain specialized medical and surgical facilities that are unique in Oman. The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (Allogenic), the Cord Blood Bank are unique national and regional services. The unit of Family and Community Medicine is regarded as an exemplary one by the World Health Organization (WHO). Trauma team and trauma surgery is a comprehensive and unique service. Clinical and laboratory genetic services and developmental medicine are other examples.
SQUH implemented telehealth and remote consultations to ensure patients are getting the care they need while avoiding the risk of COVID-19 infections for both patients and staff.

The integration between TrakCare and Google Meet includes generating a Google Meet invite through the TrakCare system to be sent to the patients and allows the SQUH staff to schedule an online consultation directly within TrakCare.

At the time of the appointment, the clinician and the administrative staff member can clearly differentiate a regular visit from a telehealth consultation using the same workbench on TrakCare. The physician is able to view the patient’s electronic record and document while conducting the call with the patient. This allows the hospital staff to continue working from TrakCare and streamline the workflow.

“SQUH is currently developing a major project for expansion of telehealth services over the next 5 years with the aim of being a leading institution in the field of telehealth. The initial phase of introducing the telehealth consultations by the direct integration between TrakCare and Google Meet is an example of the continuous commitment and partnership cooperation between SQUH and InterSystems to develop a high standard of telehealth platforms and services in Oman,” said Dr. Abdulaziz Bakathir, Senior Consultant in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and the Chairperson of the Health Informatics Committee at SQUH.

“SQUH has always been a pioneer in leveraging technology to improve the healthcare outcomes in Oman,” Said Ali Abi Raad, Country Manager for the Middle East and India at InterSystems. “The rapid deployment of the telehealth service by SQUH and InterSystems teams ensures the continuity of patient care and decreases the risk of infection while providing clinical best practice to all patients. The telehealth service is part of a larger plan as SQUH is in the final stages of launching the TrakCare patient portal which will further enable patients to access their health information securely with a single, simple user interface on their device of choice.”

^{This story originally appeared the March 3, 2021- OnTrak News Flash No.7}