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E-tablets help treat patients — While waiting, clients answer symptom inquiries on devices

Following an innovative model set by the West Clinic, Memphis Heart Clinic has begun using electronic computer tablets to help assess patients’ needs while they wait to see their doctors.

Patients answer a confidential 39-question form on the e-tablet, which asks detailed questions about their mental health, sexual practices and other areas of their day-to-day life.

“It looks at them as the whole patient,” said Dr. Joseph Samaha, a cardiologist at the Heart Clinic.

Doctors receive a color-coded print-out of the surveys and can move immediately to the most pressing problems, he said. Because the questions deal with areas outside of the primary problem area, doctors may be able to identify stresses that, if left untreated, could cause greater problems later.

By addressing the problems at each visit, Samaha said doctors can help reduce the patients’ rate of re-admittance to hospitals.

“It’s extremely time-efficient and gets to the pertinent issues right off. It’s wonderful for the staff, and I think the patients also appreciate it.”

The clinic has been using the e-tablets for about three weeks. In addition to the questionnaire, the tablets also contain information in print and video format on diseases, treatments and symptoms.

The system was developed by Supportive Oncology Services, an offshoot business of the West Clinic, which has been using a similar system for cancer patients since 2001.

“It’s fantastic. It’s been extraordinarily successful,” said Steve Coplon, chief executive of the West Clinic. “We can’t overstate the benefit for patients … for bringing things to the surface that are ordinarily overlooked.”

It has helped doctors focus the visit for the patient’s benefit. And patients not only adapted to the technology without much trouble, they embraced it after witnessing the benefits it had on their care, Coplon said.

The Supportive Oncology Services technology is now used in about 24 sites across the country. Another 90 will begin using it over the next nine to 12 months.

- Maria Burnham: 529-2320