COMING soon to Singapore hospitals: virtual ward visits; where one can use a camera phone to make video calls to patients and doctors via a bedside digital terminal.

Virtual ward visits could be an upcoming feature of SingHealth's Patient Bedside Terminal (PBT), which is currently undergoing a pilot trial at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

By year-end, those with children warded at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) should be able to make video calls
to doctors to get an update of their children's condition while seeing them in the flesh.

This feature, said a SingHealth spokesperson, will be a boon for parents who cannot be with their young children during a doctor's daily morning rounds. They can dial in using 3G phones or through webcam-equipped computers to get updates, saving a trip to the hospital.

The PBT is a touchscreen information system that is mounted to patients' beds. The system lets users access information at arm's length, enhancing the interaction between doctors and patients during bedside consultation.

Through the bedside terminal, doctors and nurses can quickly retrieve patient records and radiology images as they visit their patients in the wards.

PBT also doubles up as an entertainment system. Via a 17-inch flat-panel monitor with an onscreen menu, patients can choose to watch TV, surf the Net, or make video calls to nurses.

SingHealth this week showcased the 12 PBTs now in use at eight class A and three class B1 rooms in the orthopaedic ward in SGH - a six-month pilot which started in May this year.

By year end, SingHealth plans to install six more PBTs, with three each at KKH and Changi General Hospital (CGH).

The system at KKH will likely include the virtual ward visit application, while PBTs at CGH are likely to include a module that allows patients to access educational materials on their medical conditions and treatment options.

Given the terminal's integration of information services and user access, security was an important consideration during the development of PBT. To access medical records, doctors and nurses use a two-factor authentication token when they log onto the system.

Mr Alvin Ong, assistant director, innovation and strategic IT planning in SingHealth, said that PBT was the result of close collaboration between the SingHealth IT team and doctors and nurses.

This yielded the optimum features for PBT, as well as helping to streamline clinical, operational and administrative processes to fit the new workflow.

"We envisage the Digital Ward to be an acute care facility that incorporates a collection of innovative IT solutions to dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of patient care," he said.

The PBT was developed by SingHealth and local IT company ISPL, with grants from the Infocomm Development Authority of  Singapore (IDA).

The system, which reportedly costs less than $100,000 to develop, is part of SingHealth's vision to build a next-generation "Digital Ward" environment.

Besides PBT, the palette of medical solutions developed under the Digital Ward project now includes a wearable smart-tag- based location tracking system for monitoring patients, a computer-on- wheels, a mobile clinical assistant digital
pad and a mobile electronic X-ray system.