PICTURES of pills and details like dosages - all on a CD-ROM - have made life easier for both elderly patients and doctors at Outram Polyclinic.

The problem: Often, when elderly patients with multiple chronic diseases consult a doctor, a scramble would ensue to find out their medication details.

The polyclinic near Chinatown sees an average of 450 patients a day, 144 of whom are elderly. Daily, about half of the doctors there see nearly a dozen patients who need help with their medication.

Because many of these senior citizens are illiterate, and cannot name or describe their medicines, the doctors could take up to 15 minutes to identify the medication - including walking the patients to the pharmacy to look at samples.

The solution: The Medication ID Aid (MedIA), a CD-ROM given to all the doctors at the polyclinic.

The CD-ROM contains details of 90 different drugs used to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Not only are there pictures of the tablets, but also details such as packaging, the strength of each dosage, the shape, colour and inscription on the tablets as well as the brand names.

Dr Sally Ho, deputy director of Outram Polyclinic, told The Straits Times the programme 'has been a great help'.

'It was frustrating previously when it was difficult trying to confirm with the patients the types of medication and if that was the right dosage.

'The trips back and forth to the pharmacy also took up consultation time. This Medication ID Aid has certainly made it helpful for both parties,' she said.

The Straits Times sat in as an elderly patient, Mr Koa Buck Jat, 77, made a visit to Dr Ho.

Mr Koa, who has hypertension, took about 20 minutes to take his blood pressure, identify his medication - using the CD-ROM - and determine which ones were not helping to bring his blood pressure down.

He affirmed that on a number of previous occasions, he had to be accompanied to the pharmacy.

The idea for the CD-ROM came after some brainstorming by a team of five pharmacists at Outram Polyclinic.

A survey conducted at the end of last year had shown the difficulty that doctors faced in getting information from the elderly on their medication.

Ms Doris Teo, clinic pharmacy manager at Outram Polyclinic, said: 'From the survey, we found that more than half the doctors encountered such problems and about a quarter of them would spend 10 minutes or more on the issue.'

The team toyed with the idea of a printed catalogue, but updating it was costly.

'Another plan was for the doctors to have samples of the drugs in the consultation room. That fell through too as each pill needs to be accounted for at the pharmacy,' Ms Teo said.

They then hit on the idea of a CD-ROM, which can be easily updated.

The team carried out a second survey after the project was implemented in the middle of this year, and the results were encouraging.

'The doctors said the time taken to establish the medication fell by between five and 10 minutes,' Ms Teo said.

SingHealth is now planning to roll MedIA out at its eight other polyclinics in the next few months.

juditht@sph.com.sg