ICLDC implements diamond from Hicom to maintain excellence in diabetes heathcare throughout region

Through Diamond, ICLDC-Al Ain has a direct link with the system located in ICLDC's flagship centre in Abu Dhabi city providing a single database that is accessible from either location.

The data in Diamond is updated in real-time and easily exchanged across both sites, benefitting patients who have the flexibility of maintaining their condition from multiple locations to suit their requirements.

Carol Sansour Dabdoub, Communications Manager at ICLDC, said, "One of the goals of ICLDC is to identify diabetes-related complications at an early stage, and better still to prevent them in the first place."

"Diamond can help this objective as it delivers a robust paperless electronic record that allows us to document everything we do as it happens," continued Dabdoub.

"We use the system at ICLDC to influence and improve patient care proactively, following intelligent algorithms to guide patient treatment and enhance patient safety," she added.

According to recent figures from the International Diabetes Federation, published in November 2012, 371 million people are living with diabetes worldwide, up from 366 million a year ago. Just under half of those are estimated to be undiagnosed, as the symptoms of diabetes can be hard to detect.

Meanwhile, the UAE is ranked 11th worldwide, with 18.9% of the UAE population now living with diabetes. With Diamond, both ICLDC centres have complete visibility of each other's system providing effective work flow, patient scheduling, attendance management, blood sample collections, medical diagnostics and test results recording.

The system uses automated electronic reports to monitor the various parameters important for quality of care, patient satisfaction and patient safety, as the data in Diamond is not just a set of statistics; it is information that can be used proactively to improve the quality of care.

John Sanderson, Director, Hicom, commented, "Diamond has been specifically designed to aid clinicians in their care for diabetes patients, by warning of perceived problems with prescribing or blood results and giving reminders if actions have not been undertaken. It allows a significant reduction in risk to patients and errors in patient care, by minimizing human error."

Sanderson concluded, "Working together, ICLDC and Hicom are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved from an intelligent IT system that can be adapted and evolved over time to suit the population it serves."