Innovation

Finding New Healthcare Solutions in Qatar

Innovation is a Core Value at Sidra Medicine. It’s woven into the fabric of our DNA. Finding out-of-the-box solutions to everyday concerns for our patients and staff is fundamental to our mission.

We encourage our front-line staff to help us innovate at the point of care. And by fostering a spirit of discovery and improvement, we are able to offer unique and delightful experiences such as the innovations listed here:

Crowd Sourced Innovation Platform - Imagine

We feel so strongly about bringing about innovation from the ground up that we’ve built a crowd-sourced innovation platform called Imagine, which allows our staff to contribute to continuously improving and innovating at Sidra Medicine.

Ideas are generated through challenges within Imagine and each idea is further refined through online discussion and comments. The most popular ideas are channeled through appropriate governance to ensure quality, safety, and other feasibility metrics. Downstream from this process, staff have an opportunity to present their ideas at hospital-wide “Pitch Days” where the best ideas are voted on and green-lighted to proceed.

The Saffara Queue Management Platform

The Saffara Queue Management Platform was first championed and presented at a pitch day.

Benefits of Having Queues Integrated with the EMR

Most queuing systems are standalone -- you get a ticket and you wait your turn. Unfortunately, in the healthcare setting this requires staff to constantly switch between a queuing system and the EMR, which is where the patient information resides. This can lead to mistakes, delays in patient care, and overall frustration for both patients and staff.

Saffara solves this problem by fully integrating with our EMR and uses the same patient information to automatically create a patient queue. Furthermore, it allows for a single, seamless experience by allowing one queue number to follow patients throughout their journey at Sidra Medicine.

If you see a doctor in a clinic, but also need lab services, and then finally take a trip to the pharmacy to pick up your meds, Saffara allows your one queue number to follow you through all of the places you go.

Also, rather than just receiving a printed piece of paper, you receive a SMS text message on your phone when it's your turn. You never have to worry about staring at some queue screen in a waiting room. As a patient, you can relax and go grab a cup of coffee. When it's your turn, Saffara will let you know.

10 Moons

Presented by our Obstetrics and Gynecology department in collaboration with CMIST, 10 Moons is a patient facing mobile application allowing expectant mothers to track their pregnancies. 10 Moons enables mothers to share ultrasound images scanned at Sidra Medicine with family and friends, educate mothers on week-by-week changes, and provide information on plan of care.

The application will also provide patients a way to streamline services at Sidra Medicine. For example, information entered into 10 Moons will help reduce the time spent filling out forms and waiting during patient visits.

For IOS
For Google

Qatar is investing thoughtfully with the aim of providing the highest quality healthcare in the world.

Turning Ideas into Something Real

We have many talented in-house teams that can help bring ideas to life. The Center for Medical Innovation, Software and Technology (CMIST) is the only hospital-based software development team in the world! CMIST members also help idea generators from Imagine connect with fellow innovative teams such as Information Technology, Process Improvement, Information Management, and The Quality Department, along with multidisciplinary staff throughout the hospital, to refine and bring their ideas to life.

To date, Sidra Medicine has run several successful challenges through Imagine, including our inaugural challenge within the Children’s Clinical Management Group. Within just one month of Imagines’ launch, we achieved substantial success.

The future for innovation is bright at Sidra Medicine as we bring the next generation of advanced patient care forward with future challenges in Imagine and more collaboration with national partners throughout the nation!