ICU Digitisation

An ambitious digitisation project that will not only improve the care of seriously ill COVID-19 patients, but also reduce the risk of infection to hospital staff, is being launched at the South African Cape Town-based Tygerberg Hospital. The digitisation of the hospital's COVID-19 intensive care unit, ICU, will do away with paper-based patient records that have to be manually captured by the patients' bedside, and replace it with a new digital system relying on cameras and computer tablets used to monitor patients' vitals. A partnership between Stellenbosch University and Western Cape Provincial Health hopes that this project will contribute towards improved care for patients with COVID-19, as well as a safer working environment for health care workers in the ICU environment. Senior pulmonologist at Tygerberg Academic Hospital's pulmonary unit, Dr. Brian Allwood explains..