Ottawa Hospital using home-grown iPad app in switch to electronic patient records

If your doctor at Ottawa Hospital seems glued to his iPad, don’t worry — he’s not playing Angry Birds or checking his Facebook — he’s probably using the new app from Ottawa’s Select Start Studios that’s part of an effort to digitize patient records for greater efficiency.

The app, designed in conjunction with Ottawa Hospital, is the brainchild of three Carleton students who graduated a mere 18 months ago. The Hospital had noticed that paperwork was slowing down doctors’ work, and after finding no acceptable electronic solutions on the market already, commissioned a solution of their own. They gave Select Start 60 days to design an app that could give information easily and intuitively to doctors, including past visits, allergies, medications, test results and lab reports.

The device is being tested at Ottawa Hospital, and Select Start hopes the app will be picked up by other hospitals across North America. As The Ottawa Citizen reports, The creators are hoping their innovation can be used for more than just access to records.

"We worked closely with the hospital to turn what is typically a consumer product into a solution for the hospital's staff and patients,'' said Adam McNamara, 25, a co-founder.

"The goal is to improve the doctor-patient experience while allowing the hospital to operate more efficiently.''

While working with hospital staff, McNamara and the other co-founders, Tariq Zaid, 29, and Joshua Tessier, 24, realized the extent of the opportunities to apply mobile software to patient care.

"Electronic health records are just the beginning,'' said Zaid.

"We have an incredible opportunity to bring functions like explaining an MRI or ordering a prescription to the bedside.''

You can get more information about Select Start’s EMR Client for iOS here.