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| NatGEo's Everyday Genius: John Elmer Loterizo |
A 20 year old software engineering student from Central Philippine University (CPU) won the grand prize in National Geographic’s Everyday Genius contest. John Elmer Loterizo to the plum with his Patient in-transit Diagnostics System (PaDS).
PaDS is an app that sends a patient’s diagnostics prior to arrival to any hospital that is a critical component in patient management during emergencies.
“PaDS was an idea created through my observation of the protocol in emergency cases here in the country.” “As I come to read news articles on patients not being accepted in hospitals here in the country because of the lack of facilities and the like, the chances of that patient receiving the immediate care becomes slim,” Loterizo said.
PaDS is a communications link between an emergency medical responder and a medical practitioner that is awaiting for the arrival of a patient in transit.
Time and information are of the most critical essence during times of emergencies and having advanced knowledge of conditions and diagnostics of a patient will spell the difference between life and death during most cases.
In the Philippine setting, emergency cases had to contend with traffic in urban areas while in rural areas, the distance between primary health centers and tertiary hospitals with the proper equipment to handle such cases is an ever present factor.
As experienced by Loterizo himself, “It’s based on my personal experience,” “I had a hypokalemia at around 2 a.m. I was rushed to the hospital because I had difficulty breathing but to no avail, I had to wait for a couple of minutes before being entertained. After I was entertained, the doctors still had to query me about my medical history before giving me some form of initial treatment and subjecting myself to some tests,” Loterizo related
The wide use of smartphones in the country is a boon for solutions in addressing such critical cases.
PaDS work as a private two way conversation between a medical practitioner and the attending emergency medical responder on-site. This is of importance when the recipient hospital is not yet aware of an incoming emergency case and PaDS will advance information to the hospital so that preparations for the proper management of the case can be made before the actual arrival of the patient.
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