Doc develops software to feed patients’ medical records

“I was introduced to computers when I joined the Tata Memorial Hospital in 1989,” recalled Bokil who is an onco surgeon with Ruby Hall Clinic’s Cancer Centre. That was the time when MS Word was DOS-based. I started using dBase III + as a database for the first time,purchased a few books on programming in dBase III + and started developing small data base modules.

“Technology needs to be used with a purpose. It just makes life a lot simpler,” said Bokil who used computers for data management from the first day of his medical practice. “I then turned over to MS Access and started experimenting with it,” said B1okil who,along with his wife,took over the management of their hospital on Karve Road from January 2007. Our effort was among the first in the city to develop a paperless system for the hospital,he said.

Using the hospital management system in MS Access which they have been using for the last three years,the Bokils then added many modules to it — patient database,OPD management,billing,TDS returns and inventory. He tied up with Karishma Software Solutions from Hyderabad and developed a cancer software for Ruby Hall Clinic. “We took more than two years to develop it. So,even if a patient visits us after a gap of six months and have forgotten to bring their medical records,all I have to do is utilise the relational database management system. We do not even require a digital photograph as the software has been programmed to show the lesions in diagrammatic illustrations.”

The oncosurgeon has also developed another hospital management system for Dr Suraj Pawar,a cancer surgeon in Kolhapur. “I have developed many databases for personal use by doctors from various specialities like radiology package,physician,medical oncologist,and general surgeon,” said Bokil who insists that he does it as a hobby and does not charge any of the doctors for the software he has developed.

“My goal is to encourage doctors to use computers for data management and not just a tool for e-mails and presentations,” he adds.