MIT and SMART came up with a pre-MIT Hacking Medicine workshop to introduce to us the concept of the Hacking Medicine and what it encompasses. Many people suggested better ways for technologies to help patients navigate the complexities of both the services and the available funding schemes.
Chronological age is definitely not a determinant of the services required. A 90-year-old marathon runner and a 55 year old bed bound stoke patient will require totally different set of services. However, a 90-year-old bed bound from advance dementia and on nasogastric tube feeding will likely to be requiring similar services to that of the 55-year-old stroke patient.
As a primary care as well as long term care physician practicing in the community, part of my work is to advise patients and their families with regards to the possible services they would require; how to get maximal benefits out of our complex health system and also perhaps to relieve some of the work in our congested polyclinics.
There are already informative portals such as Agency of Integrated Care (AIC) site which is very useful but still focus on services rather than the client.
As such, I will be proposing a new portal perhaps via AIC or other aging issues related statutory board, to come out with a portal with the patient in mind. To explain further, this portal will be divided into 9 categories in accordance to the clinical fragility scale. Under each category, there will be subdividual into different sections such as health, financial and social support information. For example, the 90-year-old marathoner will be clicking onto Category 1 pages, perhaps telling him on chronic diseases screening and exercise prescription information, socially on the SG 50 sponsored courses etc. The 90-year-old stroke patient will have information on home medical and nursing services, and financially advised on IDAPE, PG-DAS, FDWG and SMEF funding schemes if eligible.
As the Clinical Frailty Scale is easy to understand and categorize, with useful information stack behind these more patient orientated headings, services can be groups and organized in a more functional way for the users.
