WEB APPLICATION «INTESTINAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES» IN EDUCATION AND MEDICINE

ABSTRACT

The description of web application «Intestinal infectious diseases» that was developed on behalf of the infection diseases department of the Northern State Medical University is presented in the following article. That web application can improve the quality of medical care provided to children with intestinal infections.

Keywords: Mobile healthcare, medical web applications, Intestinal infectious diseases, medical care quality, infusion therapy, medical calculators.

Introduction: Nowadays information technologies became an integral part of people's lives. Development of various services, information systems, applications is important part of not only in everyday life of society, but also in medicine. Mobile healthcare (mHealth) is an actively implemented and developing area of the electronic healthcare (eHealth) [1,2,3]. The creation of such systems and technologies in the medical field helps to make clinical decisions, thereby improving the quality and accessibility of medical care to the patients. There are a lot of medical mobile applications and services, electronic reference books of medicines, various medical calculators that are widely used all over the world [2,4]. But existing medical applications in the field of infectious diseases have a wide range of functionality, the search time for the needed calculator and information can be significantly prolonged. Due to that, there was a need to create a web application with a narrow clinical focus. Creation of such an application in the field of infectious diseases on the example of intestinal infections might help to assess the patient's condition, reduce the time of searching the necessary information and instantly carry out medical calculations for the patient’s therapy.

Methods and materials: Streamlit was chosen as a framework for creating a web application. It’s toolkit made it possible to create interactive forms, filled up results of which are momentarily displayed on the screen.

By publishing new version of an app in Github repository it is automatically deploying with all the updates to Heroku hosting.

Results: Web application « Intestinal infectious diseases » is a solid information source with  6 sections in it. The first one includes the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD 10) in the intestinal infectious diseases area. The second section is based on the determination of the clinical level of dehydration with the help of Clinical Dehydration Scale (CDS) and built-in calculator. By test assessment of parameters that characterize certain clinical syndromes of dehydration, calculator gives the final amount of points, which determines the level of dehydration of the patient. The third section is based on the Dennis table - knowing the level of dehydration and the age of the kid, it is possible to find out the required fluid for dehydration. In the fourth section of the application, the daily volume of the minimum and maximum physiological fluid requirements in children is determined. The online calculation takes into account both:  the weight and age of the child. In the fifth section there are electrolytes calculators with built-in formulas that help to determine the required volume of standard solutions for correcting electrolyte metabolism disorders depending on the child's body weight. The sixth section includes modern reference information about main antibacterial drugs which are used in the treatment of intestinal infections, indications and contraindications for taking drugs, dosages and treatment regimens. All of the above sections are localized in one application. That reduces the time to find the necessary information or a calculator. It is worth noting the main advantages of our application: accessibility, no paid options, easy to use, convenient navigation and interface, no need to download, the versatility and functionality of the application.

Conclusions: The creation of an application “Intestinal infectious diseases” can be useful for practicing doctors, clinical residents and for students, who study at the senior courses of medical institutions. With the help of this application the time of calculation of the physiological need for fluid, dosages of electrolytes and essential drugs can be reduced. In this way, application “Intestinal infectious diseases” can be used both for both: educational purposes and for improving the quality of medical care in an infectious diseases department.

References:

1. Avdoshin S.M., Pesotskaya E.Yu. Mobile healthcare: Perspectives in Russia // Business Informatics. 2016. No. 3 (37). P. 38–44. DOI: 10.17323/1998-0663.2016.3.38.44.
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