TURKISH SOFTWARE DEVELOPER’S 3 PATENTS BECAME A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR USA
Turkish scientists shaped the US health system with the patents they obtained. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Süleyman Ünlütürk, Vice Dean of Izmir University of Economics Faculty of Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Lecturer at Department of Software Engineering, reduced the workload of US nurses, and helped them attain a fair work system through 3 different software programs he developed on behalf of American “General Electric” company. He also developed a system that allows access to emergency patients’ information only by nurses.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünlütürk stated that the quality and security of the services the patients received in the US was very essential and people oriented studies were conducted. He said, "General Electric asked me to develop software that took the problems the nurses face into consideration specifically. As a team, we initially focused on a fair work system among the nurses. The previous program required 3 patients per nurse, but while there was a single patient in some of the rooms, the other room accommodated 3 extremely sick patients, which resulted in unfair work system. With this system we developed, each nurse provides care for 3 patients but the patients are allocated based on the severity of their illnesses.”
‘Safeguarding the privacy and security of patient health information is significant’
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünlütürk stressed the importance of patient confidentiality referring to his second patent, and he said The American Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) prohibit sharing patient health information. Ünlütürk said that the old system allowed everyone to see the information of the patients visiting the emergency unit as it was displayed on the whiteboard. “This caused major security issues. The software we developed allows the information to be viewed only by nurses and other authorized people, and prevents information leaks,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünlütürk. He said patent development happened as a result of intense labour and careful analysis of the respective profession. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünlütürk stated that they finally developed software that enabled instant access of patient information by other units within the hospital so that nurses and other health workers could receive the information. He said that his patents, which were being widely used by hospitals in the US, minimized the problems of the mentioned professional group.
‘Turkey is not ready yet’
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünlütürk, who said that developing such software regarding the nurses’ problems in Turkey was difficult, and “hospital attendant” approach was more prominent in Turkish health system, stated the following:
"In Turkey, the patients’ immediate family or friends, instead of nurses, meet the needs of the patients. The nurses cannot find a training environment. Turkey should definitely benefit from the qualified workforce of the nurses in health sector. Therefore, similar software is not necessary for our country given the current conditions. Moreover, only USA is giving patent to the software. We cannot get patents for our software from Europe and Turkey."
Some of the hospitals that uses the software in USA:
Texas Children’s Hospital
Columbia Medical Hospital
Chicago Decatur Memorial Hospital
