Working from home to support RTLS during this circuit-breaking period.
Systems Analyst, Irene Yap, was first with IHiS between 2011 and 2015, and later re-joined in 2017. She is one of a number of staff who has re-joined IHiS over the years. She shared with us her reason for doing so.
“After several years here, I left IHiS to explore how technology could help a different industry. Even though the roles were quite similar, the motivation there was very different – it was primarily profit-driven. At IHiS, there is a more altruistic element – improving healthcare and helping patients through technology. It’s very meaningful – I missed having that meaning in my job – and that is why I came back,” she said.
Working at IHiS
In her latest role at IHiS, she is part of the team that helped set up the IT infrastructure at the National Centre of Infectious Diseases (NCID), which became fully operational in 2019. As someone who studied computer science at the Charles Sturt University, Australia, Irene has a keen appreciation of technology’s ability to change lives. Even then, she still marvels at how transformational it could be, as in the case of the technology packed into the NCID.
For example, the NCID utilises the Real-Time Location System, which incorporates various locating technologies into wearable tags that track patients, visitors, staff and assets. These tags also have the ability to alert staff if they had forgotten to sanitise their hands before or after attending to a patient – one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of germs.
How does the RTLS tag know if a staff has sanitised their hands?
Hand sanitisers in NCID have been installed with pressure sensors that would emit a signal when pressed.
After a staff has attended to a patient, his RTLS tag would have been in close enough proximity with a patient’s tag to sync. This would trigger his tag to “remember” that his hands needed to be sanitised within a stipulated time frame.
After leaving the patient, the staff’s tag needs to be close enough to a sanitiser’s tag to sync, and the sanitiser’s pressure sensor has to be activated, signifying that the dispenser has been pressed.
If this was not done within a stipulated time frame, the staff’s RTLS staff tag would beep, reminding him to sanitise his hands.
During the installation phase, the project team had to ensure, that thousands of wearable tags were all working properly after they were delivered. With so much tagging and syncing involved in the roll out of RTLS in NCID, IHiS had to ensure that the building had sufficient network coverage. This meant installing more than 500 exciters – devices that “wake” the RTLS tags to transmit their locations – all over the building.
Now that NCID is fully operational, Irene continues to support the institution in her role as Project Manager by expanding the use of RTLS to integrate more functions, for examples with the Command Control and Communications system. She also guides new staff on how to use the RTLS devices, and troubleshoot when necessary.
“Implementing and supporting the RTLS has been one of my more challenging portfolios. It requires a broad set of knowledge and skills as there are many aspects to it – you need to know how the infrastructure, systems and networks work. The technology is also quite new to Singapore’s healthcare landscape, so there is plenty to learn. I am grateful to be part of this journey,” Irene said.
COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the NCID has been at the forefront of the battle to keep the virus under control.
“We had to move quickly, as COVID-19 was getting serious. Everyone automatically stepped up. We knew this was not a rehearsal.”
To increase NCID’s screening capacity and efficiency, a screening centre – initially part of a Phase 2 project to be implemented later this year, needed to be set up quickly in early Feb 2020 to deal with the influx of patients. Together with NCID staff, IHiS worked around the clock to set up the medical equipment and IT infrastructure in the tentage within a week. IHiS and TTSH/NCID staff also had to quickly procure additional items that were needed to equip the screening centre and tentage.
“We wanted to do what we can to best support the NCID staff – their dedication and courage are very inspiring. They were also very proactive in learning the IT systems we had set up to make their work more efficient. I am appreciative that I am in an industry where the work impacts lives; in fact, it has a direct link to helping the healthcare professionals save lives,” Irene said.
