JEDDAH, 14 September 2006 — People that suffer from diabetes and hypertension will no longer have to wait for their hospital appointments each time they don’t feel well. In a revolutionary initiative entitled Salamat (Good Health), people will now be able to undergo basic medical checkups — including blood pressure, sugar levels and body temperature — at home using digital monitors which would transmit the information via the Internet for doctors to access online.
The new electronic blood pressure and sugar level monitoring system has been developed by a group of engineers from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).
“The project is designed to link patients and doctors and for the patient to undergo regular health checkups wherever he or she is,” said Mansour Al-Dajani, system engineer at KFUPM. Al-Dajani has been working on the project for two years with Mansour Al-Nuzha, rector of Tayba University in Madinah.
The Salamat system entails patients using a digital blood pressure monitor at home, which then transmits a patient’s health data to a central server located at the KFUPM.
The information amalgamated at the central server is then stored to be accessed by doctors who would simply type in the patient’s ID. Medical recommendations would then be posted on the website for patients. Patients would be able to read their doctors’ recommendations, their medical results and medical history online when they access the database.
After having an account in the website, patients can update their information by sending an SMS providing their medical ID number, systolic, diastolic and pulse readings, respectively to the mobile number 0505467818. The information would then be saved and added to the database.
Researchers studying health trends are optimistic that the new system will be instrumental in easily collecting statistics about hypertension and diabetic patients in the Kingdom. “The project also aims to give accurate data on diseases people in Saudi Arabia suffer from and what doctors recommend to treat them,” said Al-Dajani.
The Salamat project is presently only available at the KFUPM clinic but developers hope that the system will soon catch on and become popular with other hospitals and clinics across the Kingdom. “We hope that this project will reach as many health organizations as possible in the Kingdom so that it may become beneficial for all,” said Dajani.
Further information about the project can be accessed online at www.salamat.org.sa or http://www.ccse.kfupm.edu.sa/salamat/index.asp.
